


ABC'S Of Me

by RenoRenjiRed



Category: Final Fantasy VII, Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Cannibalism, Cannibalistic Thoughts, F/M, Gen, Graphic Description of Corpses, M/M, Multi, Other, Rape/Non-con Elements
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-19
Updated: 2018-11-07
Packaged: 2019-04-24 20:47:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 45,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14363343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RenoRenjiRed/pseuds/RenoRenjiRed
Summary: Just a little something to pass the time. Gory, grotesque, smut, insanity, triggers. You name it, this has it. Enjoy. Read further at your own risk.





	1. ABC'S OF ME

**Author's Note:**

> I OWN NOTHING! Leave comments and let me know what you think.

THE ABC’S OF ME

When Sora woke up himself, he knew it would be a good day. He inspected his breakfast (that was delivered to his room via orderly, like everyone else, mostly) until it was sufficiently cool and then picked out the very best section of it (with his hands because he wasn’t allowed utensils- no one was… mostly no one) and he ate it slowly, counting his chews. He could hear the disturbance in the room next to his (room, not cell) but he ignored it because that was part of a normal day…disturbances next door. If there was no disturbance next door it would be because the redhead had finally managed enough alone time to kill himself like he had been so intent on since the beginning.  
The beginning was five years ago when he woke up at Harmony Hills Home for the criminally insane. Unsure of how he had gotten there or why they wouldn’t let him go home, he was shuffled from doctor to doctor until most of his questions (not all of them…never all of them) were answered. He had to stay there because he had no home to go to and he wasn’t sane enough for prison, (Sane enough? what did that even mean…) he would look it up at his first convenience only to be devastated when he understood. Even more devastating was finding out that he had murdered his parents and his brother Ven (along with the family dog and his cat} before torching the house and sitting on the curb to watch it burn. (He knows that he wasn’t the one who did it but he didn’t want to get Xion in trouble- she and Nami were his girlfriends).  
In his first year at HHH, he learned the basics. 1\. Fighting will get your ass beat by as many motherfuckers as it takes to beat your ass even if they have to call someone in on their day off to assist.  
2\. The food may or may not be tampered with- always inspect it thoroughly (with your hands).  
3\. Take your meds as directed or, refer back to 1.  
4\. Don’t get attached to other patients- they leave or die or forget who you are and beat your ass for sitting by them (Axel).  
5\. Roxanne is not exactly what she seems.  
6\. If Riku doesn’t show up at rec for weeks at a time, it’s not because he got released- he probably killed someone again.  
7\. Vanitas…see 6.  
8\. If you see Riku and Vanitas together you should alert the nearest staff member and go to your room immediately (this had happened a few times in his five years at HHH and someone always died).  
9\. Namine always told the truth while Xion tended to lie.  
10\. There was a running joke about how you never saw Xion, Namine, and Sora in the same room together but he didn’t get it…because they were with him all the time.

Strolling casually around the perimeter of his small room, Sora waited for the tell-tale click of the lock on his door before stepping out onto the hallway to breathe in the institutional scent of his permanent home. As he walked the long white hallway, he wondered what it would be like at HHH when he was an old man. There were very few older people there so he assumed that there was another similar facility for the elderly criminally insane.  
Smirking, he ran a hand through his brown spikes and gazed down at his hospital issue slip-on shoes that were sneakers, but not and also white but not. Noting the dinginess of them, he recalled the last time his shoes has stepped outside onto actual dirt, and smiled. Dirt wasn’t a thing you would expect to miss, but he did. There was a small garden where the patients were allowed to walk and some even had jobs tending the plants but not Sora. He had been to the garden twice in five years-once he was barred for eating the flowers (his meds were clearly to blame) and then he was barred a second time for having sex (masturbating) in a small grove of sunflowers. Namine was there but no one saw her and he wasn’t going to rat her out.  
No one else was in the rec area yet so he walked over to the large windows (the panes of which were shatterproof glass) and looked out to see rain and gloom. He smiled and closed his eyes trying to imagine what the rain smelled like since it was early spring.  
“Good morning.”  
Sora opened his eyes and smiled at bright aqua eyes that he saw on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday. “Hi Riku.”  
“Sora…good to see you.” Riku smiled endearingly at him but Sora knew that he was just being nice because he liked Nami. “Has Vanitas been coming on his regular days?”  
“He has, yes, Xion said he was here last week all three days-Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday.” Sora smiled and took a seat on the green sofa, immediately scooching over enough that his ass did not even touch the area that was Axel’s-he didn’t want to fight that battle again ever.  
Riku sat on the arm of the sofa and propped his feet on the end cushion, elbows on his knees, looking down at Sora. His long silver hair made him look young and he had a way of convincing people (orderlies, nurses, other patients, and probably even some doctors) to give him things that he wanted. He had convinced Nami early on that he wanted to be with her and even thought she gave Sora the occasional pity-fuck, she loved Riku and gave him whatever he wanted. “Has Nami said anything about me?”  
“She talks about you a lot…sometimes she keeps me awake but Xion gets pissy and tells her to shut up.” Sora bit his lip. “You know she’s mine, right Riku?”  
“Yeah, yeah…” Riku fidgeted. “Are you going to the movie after lunch?”  
“I guess…not a lot of options. I wanted to sign up for a class but Xion said Axel had already signed up for it so… pass. I have enough drama living next door to him.” Sora chuckled. And glanced at Riku’s bare feet pressing into the sofa that was upholstered in avocado green pleather and disinfected many times a day. He wondered how often Riku was allowed in the garden…because his feet were very very clean-looking.  
“Stop.” Riku giggled and curled his toes under, making Sora realize that he had not only been staring at the feet, he had reached out and touched them, pressing the very clean toes with his fingers like they were piano keys.  
“Sorry.” Sora peered up at his eyes as his cheeks flamed and then he fled.  
“Don’t sweat it.” Riku giggled as he watched the long pause closely and waited to see who emerged.  
“Is it Monday already? Where did my weekend go?” Sora combed his fingers through his hair and groused. “Sora is such a messy boy. We need a spa day.”  
Riku slid down onto the sofa and draped an arm around the brunette’s shoulders. “I’ve missed you Nami…you left me alone too long and something happened with one of the cafeteria ladies.”  
“Liar.” Nami/Sora sniffed. “You don’t get to eat in the cafeteria…unless something has changed since that tedious Sora has let me out.”  
“Nothing’s changed baby.” Riku giggled and turned Sora’s face for a kiss.” Just before their lips met, Riku was snatched backward and punched repeatedly in the face before he could even get his feet.  
Swinging blind until he got his bearings, his fingers caught thick hair. He yanked with all he had and sent the orderly sliding across the floor with a curse.  
“Stoppit! Stop!” Nami/Sora screamed shrilly and covered her face as more orderlies came in to apprehend Riku. Growling and spitting at their faces, Riku began to laugh and shriek Sora’s name loudly. Sora stilled and stared for mere seconds before his face split into a grin and he launched himself into the middle of the fracas. Riku continued to cackle and hoot like a wild creature even as they jabbed needles of sedatives into his neck. Sora was a wiry five feet, eight inches and at the time of his arrest and subsequent incarceration, had been the reigning champ of an underground street fighting group in his town.  
Riku felt the medication begin to weigh his arms and legs so he collapsed onto one of the orderlies and watched Sora tee off on their faces, one after another…planting a foot on one to launch himself fist-first at another. He was insane, Riku giggled drunkenly, and he loved to watch him take people apart…almost as much as he loved doing it himself. They always go to him though…they always got to him and Vanitas first with the sedatives. As if by calming them down, the rest would be quicker to fall into line. As he was being dragged away by his long hair, his torn tee dragging along beside him like a broken limb, he snorted the blood that had been oozing from his nose and savored it.  
Forcing his eyes to stay open, he felt numb as hands hoisted him onto a gurney and strapped him down. Their shrink came over and just as he suspected, shined the small light into his eyes to make sure the meds were properly taking hold. Peering suspiciously back at Dr. Frank R. Xemnas PhD he waited and when he heard the click clack of another needle coming his way, he spat his bloody loogie right onto his glasses.  
Xemnas shrieked and howled and nurses came running. Riku giggled and closed his eyes just as a hail of blows began anew and a stinging pin prick sent him on his way.

In the rec room, Sora had been hauled away in a similar fashion, without the spitting and Axel was currently wiping off his green pleather spot on the sofa with the sterile wipe he was granted each day for that very purpose. Looking around, he saw the normal Monday people…except for Sora/Xion/Nami. Riku wasn’t there either but then Riku wasn’t a regular Monday person…because he got into trouble a lot. Sitting gingerly on his spot, he smoothed his HHH issue pants over his knees and pulled his shirt until the wrinkles left from one side and went to the other. It was as if they were running a relay and it was fascinating the longer he watched.  
Axel had been committed after being charged with a double homicide but found incompetent to stand trial. He had confessed to the killings (his parents, in their beds, with a blow torch, its complicated) and had been remanded to HHH for thirty-five years or until he was adequately rehabilitated and medicated. Hi bright red hair had been growing since the day he was brought in because he refused to sit for a haircut. Unlike Riku who had long hair because they didn’t trust him in the same room with a scissors or an electric cord. (that was also complicated).  
“Torch…got a smoke?” a soft voice wafted toward his wrinkled relay drowning out the imaginary cheers from the imaginary crowds who were rooting for each side of his shirt. A bit put off that his attention was called away from such an enthralling sport, he blew out a breath and rolled his eyes before looking up to meet the bright blue eyes that he knew would be fixed on him. “I do…but you can’t have one today.”  
“Why not? I thought you liked me? I thought we were friends? Come on Torch, gimme a smoke. Or split one with me?”  
Axel raked his eyes up and down the petite blonde who never ever wore her uniform properly. Today she wore her HHH issue pants that were cut off (ripped off because she wasn’t allowed sharp objects…no one was) and had them rolled up clear to her ass. Her HHH tee was torn down the center and tied like a weird halter. She had been forbidden from showing her midriff so she also wore her long sleeve thermal underneath.  
“Come on whaddaya say?”  
“I guess…but you owe me.” Axel stood and looked suspiciously over his shoulder.  
“Don’t worry. Everyone knows that’s your seat. No one will sit there. Come on.” She grabbed one of his long pale hands with both of hers and dragged him playfully toward the sheltered smoking area outside in the courtyard. Once out and seated, Axel produced a pristine pack of smokes from his shirt pocket and passed one to the blonde.  
“Thanks…you’re great you know.”  
“I guess.” He lit up and lit hers and then smiled (something that didn’t happen that often because he was there to get well, not to make friends). “Say Roxanne, do yo know why Sora isn’t here this morning?”  
“Oh he was here earlier. I heard that eh a nd Riku jumped some orderlies. You know how it goes...Riku gets friendly with the girls, the charge nurse calls security because…”  
“No fucking in the rec room I get it.” Axel supplied unhappily.  
“And then as always with Riku, the shit hits the fan.” Roxas puffed smoke and smiled because it seemed to form animal shapes before it wafted away. “He’s so unbelievably hot.”  
“Gross” Axel covered his ears and closed his eyes.  
“Calm down…I’m not going to talk shit to you.” Roxas pulled his hands free from his ears and smiled when he opened his eyes. “I know you don’t like that stuff.”  
Axel did not like that stuff at all. He refused to talk, even to his doctor about anything concerning his dirty place. Rumors were that he had castrated himself and that’s what landed him at HHH to begin with. Taking one of Roxas’ hands to inspect the dark purple nail polish, he smiled, completely forgetting their previous conversation. “That’s pretty.”  
“Thank you.” Roxas beamed. “Xion and I painted our nails last week during art therapy. I love her…Sora can be such an attention hog. I wish he let her come out more.”  
Axel finished his smoke and sat back, folding his hands on his lap and sliding his feet together. “I like Xion and Sora but I hate Nami. She teases me and I wish that she would go hide in Sora’s brain forever.”  
“That’s not nice.” Roxas cooed as he stubbed out his smoke and shoved the filter into his shirt pocket to eat later.  
“I know but…” Axel stilled and Roxas peered over his shoulder cautiously. Someone had let the dog out. Inside, right on the other side of the safety glass windows, sat Vanitas on Axel’s spot with his pants around his ankles, smiling. Axel lost it.  
Tearing through the doors screaming, Axel grabbed a handful of jet black hair and threw the offending patient across the room. Not bothering to see where Vanitas landed, Axel rushed to the nurse’s station to beg for disinfectant. The head nurse was frantically calling for security when Vanitas snaked a hand around the redhead and relieved him of his smokes, tucked them into his own pocket and peacefully retreated too the smoking area on the patio. Axel had no idea.  
“I need Lysol! I need alcohol wi-wipes! Hurry before it spreads! I think I’m gonna vomit oh GOD!” Axel! screamed and began to pound on the Plexiglas window that separated the nurses form their charges. Security scrambled in and subdued th screaming redhead but couldn’t silence him. “HE HAD HIS BALLS ON MY SPOT! HE HAD HIS BALLS ON MY SPOT! HIS GENITALS TOUCHED MY SPOT! HIS ASS! OH GOD HIS ASS! FECAL MATTER! OH GOD HIS ASS WAS ON MY SPOT - HIS CHEEKS! HIS CHEEKS COULD’VE BEEN SPREAD! HIS ASSHOLE TOUCHED MY SPOT!”  
And with that he began to vomit as they dragged him away, still thrashing about and now crying and puking to boot. Roxas watched the entire episode with a smirk before joining Vanitas on the patio to smoke another of Axel’s pilfered cigarettes.  
“Peaches.” Vanitas nodded as he held out a smoke.  
“Why are you so mean to him?” Roxas took the smoke and walked past the seated raven, swishing his hips more than he needed to.  
“I wanted a smoke and I didn’t wanna hear a speech about payback and blah blah…besides it’s fun to watch him freak out. Wind him up…let him go.” Vanitas flicked his ashes and reached over to grab the blonde and drag him onto his lap. “Come and see me tonight?”  
“I can’t…you know I can’t. They’ve been locking me in at night since…”  
Vanitas sighed and closed his eyes. “I’m sorry, Roxanne.”  
“It’s ok.” Roxas looked away and then returned his gaze to yellow irises with slightly bloodshot sclera. “Don’t worry about it. I didn’t die.”  
“He’s crazy.” Vanitas mumbled as he recalled the night they decided to have a threesome with Riku.  
“Agree…but aren’t we all?” Roxas traced a tattoo on the hand resting on his thigh.


	2. A

A

Axel had seen enough of the goings on at HHH to know that what was about to transpire would be disastrous. Someone was going to die. Sitting in his special chair in the infirmary with the nice padded straps, he felt the cool comfort of his meds creeping up his arm to spread over his shoulder, up his neck and fill his head before going everywhere else in his body. His meds went to his head first because that’s where the trouble was. His brother said that…and his brother was right about most stuff. His brother paid for his lawyer and sent money to his account so that he would always have smokes. His brother was still free because there was nothing wrong with his head.

His attention drew back to the others in the infirmary and he began to smile. Vanitas who had defiled his spot on the sofa was approaching the infirmary sans guard…that meant he had slipped away to wage bloody hell on whoever had beaten Riku. Axel didn’t know who had done it but it really didn’t matter. A white coat was a white coat to Vanitas and Riku.

He swung the door open and strode by Axel like he wasn’t even sitting there strapped to the chair with an IV in his arm, green eyes bobbing slightly as he fought the drowsiness in order to watch the fight. 

Lexaeus was nearby and heard the footsteps but as soon as he raised his head, Vanitas caught him with an uppercut. Axel snorted and listened to the clamor and shouts before dozing off to sleep.

Vanitas shook his hand, sure that he had broken his much abused middle finger yet again and went in for another and another until Lexaeus stopped moving. Snatching his badge, he crept too the door and swiped it so he could get to Riku. Vanitas scratched his black hair that was habitually chopped at by the HHH barber but never quite cut correctly because , well…Vani didn’t want his hair cut short and he found ways of convincing people that it would just be easier to give him his way.

Vanitas had been at HHH for six years, not consecutive. He had been released but was sent back when he was arrested for refusing to leave a zoo at closing…and assaulting an officer, releasing some of the wild animals, and assaulting another officer who was then slaughtered by the tiger he had released. Vanitas had killed two people but at HHH, that wasn’t a big deal. Tugging a lock of his own hair, he bent so that his face was very near the beaten Riku and hovered there until he could feel the warmth from is skin, then made a pout like he might cry. 

Standing straight again, he looked around to see what he could escape with. He stuffed meds into his underwear along with other contraband. Unhooking Riku’s IV, he rolled his gurney to the very last cubicle and pulled the curtain. Waking him up with a pilfered ammonia capsule was easy, helping him find the drugs he needed was also easy, and watching him inject Lexaeus with enough morphine to kill them all was glorious. 

“You wanna?” Riku looked at his friend and motioned to the lifeless nurse on the floor. Vanitas shook his head. “You?”

“Nah…he never did it for me. If Sora ever dies, well…different story.” Riku giggled and Vanitas smiled as they made their way out of the infirmary unnoticed. Axel was still asleep.  
Vanitas lay awake long after lights out and listened to the faint sounds outside his door. Lexaeus had been found and after a quick review of the security cams, he and Riku had been formally charged. It really didn’t change anything because they were already incarcerated, but it would add time to Vanitas’ sentence and if he was found competent, it could be a change of venue for him. Riku was a serial killer and would never be free. Ever. He joked about people he had killed and laughed about fucking their corpses...he had even cannibalized a few…he was a sick fuck but when Vanitas arrived at HHH, Riku was first to befriend him.

They had killed nearly a dozen people since they had been inside but Vanitas didn’t own those completely so to him they didn’t count. Riku claimed them all. Riku didn’t give a fuck. A soft peck at his door as it opened made him tense in his bed and try to make himself very small…like he did when he was a kid and his step-dad would come in to tuck him in…and fondle him. A quiet giggle let him know that all was safe and he sat up and threw his covers back in invitation. 

Riku slipped into his bed and pulled him down before wrapping him in a warm embrace. “I can stay all night.”

“How did you pull that off after today?”

“New guard…doesn’t know any better.” Riku hissed as the two shifted and made themselves comfortable.

“How’s your eye?” Vanitas whispered and yawned.

“Better than Lex’s…everything.” Riku snorted and Vanitas smiled. “Take your shirt off.”

Riku complied without question because it was Vanitas and why not. Setting about getting comfortable again, Riku felt fingertips tracing the outline of each muscle on his back and his eyes began to droop. “Vani?”

“Yeah?”

“What if they transfer you to State?”

“I’ll kill myself…I ain’t livin like that.”

“Vani?”

Vanitas smiled as his finger bumped over a scar where Riku had surgery once after being shot. “You can do it.”

Riku smiled and held him tighter. Time apart didn’t matter. Sex with other people didn’t matter. What they had transcended all of the physical aspects of existence. 

Riku woke just before dawn and sat up on the bedside. “Wait.” Vanitas reached out and touched the warm skin that he craved when he was alone. Looking over his shoulder, eye far darker from his beating the day before, he smiled. Standing to slip off his sweats, he crawled into bed again to cover the lavishly tattooed skin with kisses and gentle nips.  
Vanitas wasn’t sure why Riku was so gentle with him when he was so violent with others…but he was grateful. He didn’t question anything about Riku even though he knew that, according to his record he could turn on him at any time and kill him…he didn’t care. That was the basis of it and had been for many years before he ended up at HHH. Vanitas didn’t care.

When Riku sat up on the bedside again nearly an hour later, Vanitas touched his back but said nothing. Riku looked back at him and smiled. “It’s your day for rec.”

“They may not let me. After you got drug yesterday, they let me go in and I stirred Axel up so I could get his smokes. And then the lab thing…”

“Right…” Riku nodded. “If you go, don’t…never mind.”

Vanitas watched him and couldn’t guess what he was going to say so he let it go. He watched him stand and noted that the scar on his thigh from another gunshot wound would sink slightly as his muscle moved. Scanning the smooth skin that even in its scarred state seemed flawless to him, Vanitas sat up and reached for his shirt. “Trade me.”

Riku smirked and tossed his shirt onto the bed and grabbed Vanitas’ discarded one from the floor. “Done. Later.”

“Yep.” Vanitas watched him slip out the door and then fell back onto the bed with a smile, dragging the shirt across his face.

Days dragged by with one boring evening after another. No one else died and fewer meltdowns were had with Riku and Vanitas on lockdown. Sora allowed Nami to roam freely for nearly a week because he knew she would be safe from Riku. He tried not to choose her friends for her but whenever she spent time with Riku he always seemed to be the one to suffer. He heard that Vanitas was going to stand trial for the murder of nurse Lex. Axel for one thought that was blasphemous because nurse Lex was a sadistic asshole who deserved far worse than death by Riku injection…he deserved the full Riku…torture, murder, and cannibalism…but who would want to eat him? Yuck!

A voice jarred him from his thoughts of cannibalism and he smiled up at Roxanne…once again under dressed and tobacco-less. “Want to smoke with me?”

Roxas looked pleasantly surprised and nodded. Following the tall redhead out onto the patio, Roxas sat gingerly and sighed. Taking the pre-lit cigarette, he thanked him quietly and relaxed. 

“Is something wrong, Roxy?”

Roxas shook his head and smiled politely. “No…something is right and I have no idea how to feel about it.”

“Are you getting out?”

“Sort of.” Roxas blew his smoke and smiled sadly. “I’m getting a transfer to a halfway house. Apparently I have been successfully rehabilitated.”

Axel scowled. He tried so hard to get better but he continued to fail. How did Roxanne get better when she didn’t even follow the dress code? “I don’t think you should go.”

“Well tell them that because I would gladly stay.” Roxas pouted. “If I go to that place I’ll end up right back on the street and right back to whoring for food. No thank you. At least in here I get meals and shelter…and I don’t have to fuck anyone for it.”

Axel felt sorry for the blonde who was very confused about herself. He has seen her penis so he knew for sure that she was a boy…but he didn’t think that she knew that. Also he wasn’t altogether sure she knew how to use it because she always sat down to pee and laughed whenever she caught him looking. If he had a sister he would want her to be like Roxanne…he wished for his brother to come and visit and maybe meet Roxanne and fall in love. He was sure that Reno wouldn’t care if she had a penis. Reno could teach her what to do with it at least. Lost in his thoughts, he didn’t hear the frail blonde chattering about her plan to remain at HHH with them.

When Axel heard the buzzer for lunch, he looked around but found that he was alone. When had Roxanne left? Stretching and heading for the cafeteria, he forgot all about what she had told him.

Right before lights out there was a rush of orderlies and nurses toward the C wing. Axel saw them running toward Roxanne’s room and he wondered absently if she was upset because she had to leave her friends. Turning back to the rec room doors, he heard yelling and thought that he should probably just go inside and forget it but he had to look one more time. They were strapping Roxanne to a gurney and she was too white…she looked dead except there was burnt parts…Axel pondered if all dead people who didn’t have burned parts looked as peaceful as Roxanne did at that moment. Probably not. He went back inside to watch the end of the movie.

The next morning Sora woke up in a pissy mood. His breakfast was cold, his ass hurt, and someone said that Roxanne was in the infirmary because she had tried to kill herself. He knew Xion would be upset and assumed that’s why he woke up in a pissy mood. Sighing, he felt a headache coming on.

As he entered the rec room he remembered that it was Sunday when he saw Vanitas perched outside on the patio smoking. Stepping out onto the cement, he nodded to him. “S’up.”

Vanitas nodded to and offered him a smoke which he declined. “How’s my girl?”

“Fine…how is Riku?”

Vanitas scowled. “Is that why you came out here? To ask about Riku? You don’t even smoke. Fuck off and ask one of the orderlies how he is if you wanna know so bad.”

“Sorry...asshole.” Sora turned to go and Vanitas thumped his burning cigarette in his direction. It landed in his hair but he continued on inside the rec room and flopped onto the green pleather sofa to watch tv. Vanitas watched, indifferent to how it would end.

Someone saw smoke and began screaming, Sora yelled back unable to understand their shrieks. Someone hit him on the head with a magazine and a fight erupted. Vanitas smiled and checked his watch, and then ambled off in the direction of the solitary cells. 

Finding the right cell wasn’t hard. He walked past and glanced at the small windows until he saw blood smeared on one to obscure the view. That was his boy. Pecking once, he tiptoed to try and see into the room. A bump against the door from the inside let him now that there was still life in the killer inside. Looking down the hallway toward the station, he noticed that there was only one nurse. He strolled down and smiled. “I wanna see Riku.”

“Sorry…Riku can’t have visitors.” She spoke without even looking up. “He’s being transferred to State Hospital for some testing that can't be done here.”

“What kind of testing?”

“The kind that’s none of your business. Please return to your ward.”

Vanitas scratched his head deciding what to do…and then walked away, only to return with a fire extinguisher which he shoved through the opening in the Plexiglas before opening it up,

Riku’s door swung open and Vanitas grimaced. “What the fuck dude?”

“They won’t…let me…” Riku grunted. He was drugged to the point that he could barely talk, lying on the padded floor in a straight jacket, covered in his own filth. His hair had been cut off and stuck out from his scalp in matted jagged spikes. Aqua eyes finally focusing on his visitor, he smiled coldly. “Kill em all.”

Vanitas turned and walked out of the padded cell on auto-pilot. He approached the still shrieking nurse covered in foam and retrieved the empty extinguisher. Swinging it wide, he caught her on the temple, ceasing her screams and dropping her like a two hundred pound sack of flour. Quickly rummaging for something to release Riku from his bonds, he heard a man yelling and footsteps approaching quickly.

Armed with loaded syringes of whatever he could find, he went in swinging. Minutes later he was holding the last two off as they nursed punctures and scratches, one dropping to their knees from the effects of the medicine. “WHO DID THIS TO RIKU?”

“He did this to himself!” one guard yelled. “He refuses to follow any rules! He’s out of control!”

“You stay back!” Vanitas thrust the needle at the guard who was unarmed and started toward Riku’s room again. “I’m taking him…you can stand guard but I’m taking him to shower. If any of you bastards fucks with us, I swear I’ll kill you all.”

He stood aside and allowed Vanitas to wrestle Riku into a wheelchair and wheel him over to the large communal shower room that was used for the more docile patients. Aqua blues watched Vanitas fret with the fasteners until he had freed his arms and then rolled him, chair and all, under the shower. Warm water was like summer rain and he smiled while Vanitas scrubbed. “Vani…”

“Yeah?” Vanitas looked up as if he was doing mundane desk work.

“Never mind.”

Vanitas smirked and wondered why Riku decided not to tell him so many things…and then decided that he probably didn’t need to know.


	3. B

B

Blood was everywhere and Vanitas furrowed his brow at the smell but stepped inside anyway. He thought he heard Riku calling him to his new cell (cell, not room) so he sneaked away from rec.

After weeks of peacetime and being found unfit to stand trial for his part in the Lexaeus’ murder (mostly because of his antics with the fire extinguisher) he had been behaving. Riku had been moved to a cell with armed guards. Vanitas’ guards weren’t armed and therefore handicapped. Passing a few nurses who assumed that he had been allowed out, he smiled and nodded. The infirmary had been re-staffed since the incident and his behavior with the new people had been stellar…so far.

Back to the present…inside the cell, the first thing he noticed after the blood was that Riku was seated on the floor amongst organs and there were chunks missing from the body…bite-sized chunks. Careful not to slip in the blood, Vanitas approached his friend who was naked and bloody. Looking around once more, he chewed his lip. “Did you call me?”

Riku smiled and nodded. “I didn’t know if you’d hear me or…cause I couldn’t scream you know. Someone would’ve…shut the door…we’ll have more time.”

Axel scrubbed and cleaned and scrubbed some more. Something about the green sofa just looked dirty to him and he couldn’t make his peace with it…so he cleaned. Finally after what seemed like forever to the nurses, they approached him kindly, “Axel, sweetie, it’s clean now. You can sit there.”

“No...still dirty. Don’t you see?”

“That’s where you’ve scrubbed part of the dye out of the fabric…it’s all like that underneath.”

For some reason that statement resonated with the redhead and he nodded and stopped his scrubbing. As the nurses walked away, one said “I told you they just need to be treated like children. I think that’s the problem with this place. They guard them and treat them like criminals when most of them just need to have a childhood they never got to have before.”

Axel pondered that as he stood and hissed at the pain in his knees. He had been scrubbing for quite a while. Looking around the rec room, he didn’t see anyone he wanted to talk to so he went out to smoke alone. The first person to appear was Roxanne…of course because she never had any smokes or any money. She hadn’t had money for a snack, ever, and although Axel sometimes shared his, he wondered if she even knew how to make the snack machines work. He thought of the first time he used them and how confusing all the choices were…but the process to make the machines work was easy, pretty easy, relatively simple. Reno always made sure he had plenty of money in his account so that he could swipe his card as many times a day as he wanted…while Roxanne snacked on weird things like paper and cigarette butts.

When he circled back around to the fact that Roxanne never had money for anything, he realized that he was still standing by the green sofa and the blonde had come by at some point, taken a cigarette from his pocket and was currently watching him from the patio with a sad smile. “She’s back!” he hurried out to speak with her and inspect the pink and purple bandages that encircled her wrists. “Hey you’re back…I thought you died.”

“Nope…” Roxas chuckled and puffed away. 

Axel fell silent and wondered why he had never bought her a snack…he did things like that for the homeless people he used to see in his old neighborhood. “You want to get a snack with me?”

Roxas glanced sidelong at him and smiled a bit happier this time. “Sure.”

As they walked together around the outside of the building so they could finish their cigarettes, Axel noticed that her toes were painted to match her fingers and she had no shoes. It was summer so that was ok he guessed, but the he began to wonder about all of the parasites that could enter her body through her feet. Before he went too deeply into that train of thought, a hand on his arm got his attention. “We’re here…and your cigarette has burned out.”

He smiled at the blonde who always looked amused when he got lost in his own head. “Thanks.”

They made their selections and sat at the picnic tables under the shade of a silver maple. Roxas watched the bright green eyes dart from place to place before settling on something and glazing over. That was Torch…he had a system for everything but never quite accomplished what he set out to because he always got lost on the way. 

He was beautiful and funny and in a perfect world where no one was crazy and people didn’t abuse their sons and then turn them out to sell their bodies to men whom they may or may not rob and accidentally murder…and a world where parents didn’t try to cure their son’s mental illness with religion until he (very much on purpose) kills them with a propane torch and then castrates himself with a kitchen knife, leaving his bloody balls and a bible on the bed by their burned corpses…maybe they could have been a thing. 

“Torch?”

“Yes?”

“Does it bother you that people call you that?”

“No…it used to but my brother said that it was ok to have a nickname that referred to my crime because that meant people know my story…fear me… will leave me alone.” He folded his candy wrapper over and over until it was a tiny box. “Do you want a nickname? Because I could pick you one.”

“I have a nickname…silly.” Roxas smiled as he folded his own candy wrapper over and over but it wasn’t becoming a small box, Axel noted.

“Why don’t I know it...what is it? Is it secret? Can I not know?” His eyes never left the purple tipped fingers that were transforming the candy wrapper into something that was not a box and stuck out in all directions.

“Roxanne is my nickname.” Roxas smiled and pulled Axel’s hand over to place in it a small origami swan. The redhead gasped and inspected it closely, turning it over and over in his hand. “You made me a duck…out of the butterfinger wrapper? How? Is it a trick?”

“I learned it in art therapy…you should come.” Roxas smiled at the wonder in bright green eyes. “We should be getting back.”

Axel nodded as they stood and mumbled. “I wonder of Vanitas is back from visiting Riku yet…”

Roxas stopped in his tracks. “What?”

“Vanitas left rec to go see Riku in his new cell…they’ve both been good for a long time so I think it’s only fair that they get to see each other…don’t you?”

Roxas sighed and nodded, taking the offered cigarette that was already lit. “I guess…as long as no one dies.”

Vanitas eyes dragged over Riku’s blood smeared skin and then returned to the corpse that had been disemboweled. Not all the intestines were out but some of the small one had fallen out of the gaping hole that Vanitas was genuinely curious what Riku had used to make. It was a female guard…not a smart thing to have a female guarding Riku but whatever…guess that would end up in his list. Everyone had a list but he wasn’t Torch so he wasn’t dwelling on that at the moment. At the moment he was closing the door and approaching Riku who hadn’t moved except to touch himself.

Glancing at the partially dressed, partially eaten skin of the dead guard, Vanitas noted the lower half was the least dressed and wondered how long she had been dead and how many times Riku had fucked her…before he decided to start eating her. Stopping inches away from where he sat, Vanitas chewed his lip, envying the dead woman just a bit. “Do you want to kill me…like that?”

Riku wiped the blood from his mouth and shook his head. “I want to but not like this…you’re special…different and…I can only kill you once so…it will have to be something planned…something spectacular.”

Vanitas nodded and watched Riku’s bloody hand slide up and down slowly. Shrugging, he began to undress and watched the smile spread across Riku’s face.   
“I want to do something…for you.” Vanitas mumbled as he bent to dig through the corpse. Lifting out the liver, he began squeezing it and rubbing the blood on his skin. Riku gaped as he watched the tattooed killer paint himself with blood, turning so that he could see that he was covering all his favorite parts completely. Abandoning his own body, Riku got to his knees and reached for the liver. Vanitas smiled as he gave it to him and watched with wonder while he attempted to finish covering him with blood.

Vanitas didn’t mind the cooling blood that was becoming sticky and he found it a bit endearing that Riku seemed to be enjoying it so much. He was panting, his cock was leaking and the sticky blood intermingled with the slick come made a sheen on his skin that he found quite entrancing. Riku’s hands were beginning to shake the more aroused Vanitas became, until finally he dropped the liver and reached for him greedily. With no concern for his life whatsoever, the raven sat down and positioned himself on Riku’s lap. He had never seen him so anxious and he smiled lovingly when shaking hands grabbed his hips.

“You did this for me…let me have you like this… “ Riku panted as he fucked him on the bloody tile and then he started to cry. In the past Riku cried when he felt something that he was unsure how to process. He had cried when killing before, once when a woman begged for her life and said that she had a baby at home who needed her. The thought of the sad baby made him cry but it shouldn’t have because he had been a sad baby…it wasn’t so bad, and he cried once when he killed a little boy who happened to walk in on him while he was with his mom. He didn’t want to kill him so he supposed that’s what made him cry that time. Why was he crying now? Why did Vanitas doing something like this make him cry? He shouldn’t be crying, he should be feeling like a king, like a god.

Vanitas felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude as he lay there. Riku said he was special…Riku chose not to kill him yet but he would…he was sure of it and felt almost giddy at the thought. He would kill him and eat him and they would be together forever. He would cover himself with blood and pretend for him…pretend to be dead so that Riku could get off. He liked that Vanitas lay still when he fucked him and that was why he kept returning…but covered in real blood, well, that was as close as you were going to get without actually …

By the time he had exhausted himself, they were sure that they were about to be discovered and had no idea what their punishment would be this time. Riku began to pull away from Vanitas like he always did but the raven held him tighter. “Wait.”

The doors eventually opened and guards rushed inside, pulling them apart, slipping in the blood, shouting. Neither of them fought back this time…they had gotten what they wanted this time…and they both had a feeling that things were finally going to change for them. Maybe now they would see that they would always finds a way to be together…always.

Sora sat on the green sofa watching Roxanne and Axel chat at the board game table but they weren’t playing a game. He scowled but said nothing. Something wasn’t right and he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. Scanning the room again he saw it…in the corner with a nurse, crouched at a table was a new guy. His hair was bluish gray and the roots were a bit darker…he was skinny, really skinny and he kept his eyes down so Sora couldn’t tell what color they were. Smiling, he headed over to say hello. 

The nurse saw him approaching and began to smile, patting the hand of the new guy before he pulled it away and tucked it into his long sleeve. “Hi, I’m Sora.”

“Hi…Zexion.” He mumbled and the nurse stood. “I’ll be right over here if you need anything…Sora is one of the good ones.”

Sora sat and Zexion looked up at him with a blank expression (his eyes were the same color as his hair…or vice versa, Sora wasn’t sure how he should address that so he just left it alone for now).

“So you’re one of the good ones in a home for the criminally insane…how does that make you feel?”

Sora chuckled. “That’s one of the nicer things that’s been said about me so I’ll take it. What you in for?”

“Don’t you watch the news?”

“Not allowed. Same question.”

Zexion smiled a bit. “I killed some people…it was on the news.”

“Why…did you kill them I mean, not why was it on the news.” Sora fidgeted.

“I really don’t want to talk about it…Sora.”

Sora shrugged and sat making small talk with the thin newcomer but soon they were all ushered back to their rooms…there was a lockdown and would be taking dinner in their rooms, no cafeteria for those who were allowed and no movie. All evening therapy was cancelled and he overheard the nurses talking to each other about a mandatory meeting. They looked worried.

As he opened his door he saw Axel approaching his own, next door. “Torch, what’s going on?”

“Vanitas went to see Riku in his new cell and they probably killed someone…that’s what Roxanne said. Did you see her today? Didn’t she look nice? She’s all better from trying to kill herself. She didn’t die you know.”

“That’s great, that she didn’t die I mean, not about the Riku and Vanitas thing…and she’s probably right about what they did. I don’t get why they just don’t transfer one of them to another home.”

“I don’t know…is there another home?”

“I’m sure there’s another one somewhere…this can’t be the only one. Did you see the new guy?” Sora leaned against his door, “His eyes are the same color as his hair.”

Axel stared and the brunette could see his eyes begin to glaze over, and he grinned. “See ya later Torch.” He opened his door and went inside, knowing that it locked automatically and could only be opened from the outside until and unless the powers that be deemed it permissible for him to open his own door. But it wasn’t just his door, it was everyone’s…mostly everyone’s.

Axel stood there holding his doorknob, lost in his own mind. Was the new guy’s hair the same color as his eyes or were his eyes the same color as his hair? Did his hair somehow cause his eyes to be the same color or was it some weird optical illusion? Maybe the eyes caused the hair to be that color…maybe the hair grew inside his head just like it did on the outside but made a net-like sac around his brain and the only reason his eyes looked that color is because they were actually clear and you were simply seeing the hair color through clear eyes…or maybe he had dyed his hair?

As Axel stood holding his doorknob, deep in thought, he was bypassed by a few nurses who both spoke to him but he didn’t hear. When he finally made his peace with the possibility that the new guy was in fact an alien, he looked around to find the corridor deserted. Suddenly curious as to how many steps it was from his room to Roxanne’s he walked away, counting quietly.


	4. C

C

“Cannibalized…did you ever in your life? No wonder they can’t keep this place staffed.” A nurse snorted as she walked out of the mandatory emergency staff meeting. Axel was standing by the door with his eyes glazed over…he had heard enough to send him off wandering around inside his own head with a butterfly net and he was still standing there when the meeting adjourned.  
“Well, look at you…how did you get out?” the talking nurse took his hand and led him down the hallway. He shuffled along in his new HHH issue slip on sneakers that were bright white (because he liked for things to be clean) and continued to stare because he refused at this moment to relinquish his safe place (inside his own head).  
When they got to his door, she was still talking to him but he hadn’t heard a word of it. His ears had stopped listening at the word cannibalized as it pertained to Riku. No mention was made of Vanitas so Axel assumed the worst and set about trying to forget that he really liked the tattooed patient who was also an artist…or so he said.  
Those thoughts led to him puzzling over how one human goes about eating another human…did they eat the bones and if so how was that possible? Did they have special teeth and if so then wouldn’t that mean that they were cannibals from birth and wouldn’t that technically make him immune to any judgement or punishment for simply following his nature? Axel thought so. But if the case was that eating human flesh caused the growth of special teeth, then that would make the cannibalism punishable but…they would have to go into his past and find out when was the first time he ate people, causing the growth of the special teeth and the transformation into a cannibal. If no date could be determined then he again could get off on a technicality because he could easily claim that his parent or caregiver (because he was an orphan) gave him human flesh as a small child, causing the transformation, and thus making his people-eating natural to his condition.  
Or maybe they just didn’t eat the bones.

Dr. Martin looked at the screen and then raised his eyes to meet yellow irises glaring back at him. “Vanitas…are you angry?”  
“I want to know where he is.”  
“He has been moved to another hospital where he is undergoing tests.”  
“Liar.” Vanitas snarled and yanked at the restraints holding him in the chair.  
The doctor raised his eyes and sat back. There was no way the patient could now that he was lying unless one of the staff was giving him information and he wouldn’t get very far with him if he remained in his current state of barely suppressed rage. “Touché.”  
Vanitas seemed to calm immediately.  
“The warden advised that we should tell you that but I see you know that he is still here on the premises. How do you know that?”  
“I hear him calling me.” Vanitas stared into the doctor’s eyes, imploring him to believe his words. “His darkness…inside him…it calls out to my darkness.”  
“What does it say when it calls to you?”  
“It tells me to come to him and then I just know where he is…I just know.” Vanitas chewed his lip and fidgeted briefly. “I know I sound crazy right now, but it’s so clear and he says that he’s coming for me as soon as he can…he’s coming for me, for ME.”  
“We don’t think you two should be together. We worry for your well being, Vanitas.”  
“Why?” he looked genuinely confused and seemed to be listening to an inner voice.  
“We worry that he will harm you.”  
Vanitas blinked a few times as he processed and then mumbled “I want him to.”  
The doctor knew immediately that he had lost that battle so he moved on. “I need to ask you about something else that has showed up on your file more recently. A body was found near one of your former residences and is being investigated as a murder.”  
“Body…”  
“Yes, a young girl, thirteen I believe.”  
“Olette.” Vanitas deadpanned as if the name were just a word.  
“So you are confessing that you knew her?”  
“I am confessing that I killed her.” He squirmed in his chair and then met the doctor’s eyes. “You’re about to ask me why did I never mention her before and I will tell you it's because you never asked before.”  
But…”  
“Now you want to know if there are any more bodies. Yes. There are more bodies. Yes, they are all girls. I didn’t mean to kill them, or at least I didn’t intend to kill them when I set out, but it happened, so…”  
“I need to know about these other victims, the doctor tapped frantically away at his laptop and Vanitas listened to the clicking of the keys until he heard that word. “Hey I was the victim in all of these cases!”  
“If you were the victim, then how is it they are the ones who are dead?”  
“Exactly.” Vanitas nodded and sat back in the chair, satisfied that the man across from him with the fancy PhD should be able to figure it out. The doctor continued to type and Vanitas sighed, looking from the small device used to record their sessions to the window, wishing that he could jump. “I’ll tell you everything but first you have to let me see Riku.”  
“I’m afraid that’s impossible.”  
“Then I have nothing to say.”  
“Give me time to arrange it.”  
“What’s to arrange? Walk me over there and let me see that he’s being treated well.”  
“I can assure you…”  
“If you lie, I will know.”  
“He is heavily sedated right now and probably not even conscious.” The doctor sat back and folded his hands on his lap. “Why are you concerned with his well-being but not your own?”  
“Riku likes living and plans to do so until someone stops him…I don’t care for it and therefore don’t care when it ends…and I would rather that he’s the one who ends it for me.”  
“I think we’re going to change your meds completely Vanitas. I feel like much is to be gained by overhauling your regimen.” The doctor decided to get away from the subject of Riku and dying.  
“Riku.”  
“Tomorrow.”  
Vanitas nodded once and shut down. It was a complete sign-off and the doctor new it so he ended the session and called for the orderly to roll him back to his room and leave him there.

Axel had a small audience in rec. Two days had passed since anyone had seen either Riku or Vanitas and Axel explained that was because Riku had eaten Vanitas and neither of them was to blame. He had given it a lot of thought and came to the conclusion that neither party was responsible for his own actions. Riku was a cannibal and Vanitas was a sociopath. Cannibals were like zombies (driven by their need for food) and sociopaths didn’t have feelings (about anything…love, fear, shit like that).  
Roxanne listened raptly and tried to pick out the bits that were possibly true versus the bits that were all Torch. Glancing at Sora who insisted on being called Xion today, she grunted and waited for Axel to wind down. Once questions had been answered to the best of his informed ability, he took Roxanne by the hand and headed for the patio for a smoke. She blushed and trotted alongside him in her newly decorated HHH issue shoes.  
“So what do you think?” Axel lit them both a smoke and nodded to her shoes that she had decorated in art therapy (pink with yellow flowers). “Very nice.”  
Taking the offered smoke, Roxas smiled. “Thank you. I think you’re right that neither of them is to blame...you know when they’re together they’re not like they are when they’re apart.”  
“I don’t know what you mean.” Axel tugged her hand again. “Snack?”  
“Yes, thank you again.” Roxas was pleasantly surprised. “I don’t know what to think of all your sudden generosity and hand-touching.”  
“I like you.”  
“I like you too.”  
Axel smiled. “Roxas…your name is Roxas Strife and I want you to meet my brother when he comes again. Will you put him on your list?”  
“Sure…”  
“His name is Reno Sinclair.” Axel nodded. “I want him to see how pretty you are.”  
Roxas didn’t know whether to laugh or cry as they walked toward the vending machines (the outside ones-because the inside ones were in the cafeteria and Axel didn’t like the noise in the cafeteria). “When will he be coming again?”  
“I don’t know because he never calls…he just shows up and always asks me if they’re being nice to me here. He says they had better be nice to me and I think that’s why they are. I wish they would be nice to Riku. I’m sure he’s sad that he ate Vanitas. They were friends…if sociopaths can have friends.”  
“They’re not nice to Riku because they don’t understand him.” Roxas pondered. Axel nodded. “I thought it was because he killed people all the time.”  
“That too.” Roxas snorted. “So what do you think of the new guy- Zexion?”  
“I like him…but he reminds me of a picture that someone colored but they only had one crayon.” Axel continued getting candy from the machine and after his sixth purchase, Roxas stopped him. Why are you getting so many?”  
“I have some in my room and I wanted you to have some in your room too…for later.”  
Roxas cried.

Riku sat in his wheelchair, head forward, quivering string of drool hanging from his lower lip. Dr. Martin watched him briefly as he took notes and finally spoke. “Vanitas says that you call out to him. Is that true?”  
Riku’s head bobbed.  
“We both know that telepathy has never been proven…would you like to elaborate on how you call out to him?”  
Riku shook his head slightly and the doctor chuckled. Big scary serial killer…didn’t look very scary at the moment: arms and ankles strapped to his wheelchair, drugged into a stupor after two days of catatonia from which he woke in an empty cell naked, cold, and filthy. They hadn’t even bothered to bathe him after his exploits with his guard and Vanitas; they had simply shot him full of drugs and tossed him into and empty cell.  
Upon waking, he began to pound on the door and demand food and a bath and when no one came, he banged his head on the door until he knocked himself out, at which time he was drugged again and dragged to the showers where he was washed with disinfectant and sponge mops until he was presentable. Since his long hair had been sheared off before the incident, they didn’t bother with anything beyond washing it, and he was clothed and strapped into the chair and wheeled to the doctor.  
“Do you want Vanitas to see you like this?”  
Riku bobbed his head.  
“You do? Are you hoping to gain his sympathy…and possibly keep him from testifying against you?” the doctor smiled when Riku made no move to answer either way. “I see…maybe you didn’t think that this would go to trial. Ridiculous. There is no quota that, once filled, you are no longer prosecuted for murder. And that is what you did. You murdered your guard…but not before raping her, yes?”  
“No…” Riku drooled.  
“No? Are you denying the rape or the murder?”  
“Rape….No.”  
“I see, so you’re saying that the intercourse was consensual? What about the intercourse after she was dead? And did she also give you permission to eat her flesh? To bathe in her blood?” the doctor stood and circled his desk, bending down to look into drowsy aqua eyes. “I don’t think she did and I don’t think a judge or jury will either…especially given your record.”  
Straightening and returning to his chair, he lifted a sheet of paper and snarled before returning it to his desk, “I see that you never disclosed the location of some of your victims…do you want to share that with us at this time?”  
Riku shook his head.  
“No Vanitas then. You will be returned to your cell where you will remain with no visitors until which time you need to appear in court. I hope, Riku Valentine, that they convict you and sentence you to death. The world would be a better place and my job would be far easier if you were dead.”  
Riku didn’t argue that but he knew he would have to give them enough to get that visit with Vanitas. He had to see him at least one more time…but isn’t that how it always started…one more time. “Twilight Town…there was a girl that I dumped in a landfill. Her name was Kiki.”  
The doctor busied himself with typing the information into a database for missing girls and Jane Doe bodies, and got a hit. “Thank you…now if you would be so kind as to disclose any more bodies…”  
“Vanitas.”  
“Very well…just to show you that I am a man of my word.”  
Riku smirked devilishly but never raised his head.


	5. D

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, I own nothing! Comments are welcome!!

D

Dreaming about his past wasn’t something that happened to Zexion often and when it did happen, it always upset him. He woke shaking and nauseated, so he crawled out of bed for a drink of water. The shock of remembering where he was made him pause and look around. “Nut house…that’s right.”

Returning from his bathroom (he had a nicer room than many of the patients there because his crime hadn’t been violent and he had never self-harmed). He was a hacker and a thief…a very wealthy one when he got caught…but his hobbies got him sent here instead of the state pen. His hobbies (as per his quickly crafted profile as a bid to stay out of prison) included taxidermy and rock collecting. He also created bogus hospital records to show that he had been to the e.r. on more than a few occasion to have his stomach pumped or to have foreign objects removed from his person…he attached the x-rays as well. (toy cars should not be inserted into the rectum).

He lay awake for what seemed like forever thinking about what he had heard in the rec room the previous day and wondered how much of it was true. Had Riku really eaten the other guy? Everyone had heard of Riku Valentine, the Vampire of Twilight Town, but not everyone knew the extent of his affliction and the depths of his depravity. Zexion was learning. He was also learning that as far as staying out of prison, he had done a fine job but in the aspect of choosing a facility to reside in during his incarceration, he could have chosen more wisely.

He hoped that after the latest incident that Valentine would be put to death or a staff member would kill him and blame it on a patient (it happened more often than you think). Staring at the ceiling, he pondered how he would pass the time. He was barred from any and all electronics except for watching the communal television so he decided to busy himself with reading. As soon as the doors were unlocked, he headed to cafeteria for breakfast and then on to the library.

 

A nurse opened Vanitas’ door to allow two guards inside, one was pushing a wheelchair with restraints and the other was holding a newly issued taser. He looked up from his seat on the floor with a scowl but said nothing. Dr. Martin stepped inside and observed the tattooed patient: seated on the floor wearing only underwear, seemingly in the middle of exercise, his breakfast untouched but a half empty bottle of water was within reach. “It is time for your visit with Riku.”

Vanitas nodded and started to get up. 

“Make yourself presentable and take a seat.”

“I can’t even walk down to see him?” he pulled on a clean tee with the HHH logo on the chest and reached for his discarded sweats (he was no longer allowed jeans or his personal shirts…he would have to earn them back).

“You seem to forget what got you two in this quandary to begin with. You’re criminals…murderers…and whatever hardships that you have to endure at this facility are far more humane than what you did to officer Stevenson.” Dr. Martin sniffed and stepped outside the door but held it open. “You won’t need shoes, let’s just get this over with.”

In the chair being whisked away (his first foray outside his room since the incident) a few other patients were passing by and froze when they saw him. Apparently word had gotten around about the guard but Vanitas knew how word travelled there and he wondered what the rumors were. Smiling bitterly, he began to feel a bit giddy at the thought of seeing Riku face to face again but his stomach knotted when he thought that it may be the last time. “No…” he whispered to himself and no one batted an eye. Glancing up at the nurse, the guard that wasn’t pushing his chair and the good doctor, he assessed their persons and waited.

 

Coming to a stop in a room that was separated down the center by Plexiglas and cubicles equipped with circular two way mics and headsets (wireless, damn). Since no one else was in the room, the headsets would be unnecessary…and his hands were secured to the chair anyway. They rolled him to the center cubicle and he looked around and chewed his lip. “What is this place?”

“This is the visitation room…not that you’ll ever be needing it. I understand that you have no family…that’s too bad.” Dr. Martin sneered quietly as he inspected his manicure.

Vanitas said nothing but in his mind he decided that of he could murder one more person before he died, Dr. Martin would be that person.

Then he checked his watch and then turned to the nurse. “Please go and see what is keeping them.”

“But doctor, I…”

“Just go. There is no way he has overcome the guards while under all the medication. Do your job.”

She cringed and hurried away looking worriedly over her shoulder. 

Vanitas began to wonder if he was going to show at all when a door opened on the other side of the Plexiglas barrier. He peered anxiously, squinting for the first sight of silver hair. As soon as he saw it, he allowed the smallest smile to escape and wiggled his fingers. The nurse who had left his side was now accompanying Riku and even though the doctor seemed not to notice, Vanitas noted that she looked a bit green.

Riku looked even taller with his hair cut short and the remnants of bruising on his right cheek let Vanitas know that they had needed to subdue him at least once since the incident. He smirked as he strode over and kicked the chair out and sat down. The doctor made no comment about his lack of restraints and the fact that he was walking freely and of his own volition. Vanitas smiled.

Riku winked at him. “You look great…are they treating you well?”

“Yes.” Vanitas watched his mouth move and the way the dimple in his cheek sank in when he smiled. Focusing on his eyes, he nodded once. 

Riku leaned his head to the side and rolled his beautiful eyes a bit. “Would be nice if they would at least let us have one last meal together.”

Vanitas smirked and his heart soared. “I guess this is it.”

Riku nodded and bit his lip. “I guess it is.”

No sooner had the words passed his lips when he stood, shoving the chair out violently and then lifting it up to swing at the single guard who accompanied him and the nurse. Instead of fighting, the guard fled, the nurse fled, and Riku launched himself against the Plexiglas, screaming and glaring at Dr. Martin. Vanitas began to laugh, still strapped into the chair.

“Get him back to his room! Immediately! Call a code white!” Dr. Martin screamed as one guard began wheeling him away and the other guard was ordered to stay with the doctor. Riku had already disappeared from the other side of the visitor’s partition. Vanitas was still laughing as the guard broke into a run but they both ceased when Riku slid to a stop in the middle of the intersection that they were approaching, taser wires hanging from his back, smashed taser dragging along like a broken tail. 

After a brief pause, the guard abandoned the wheelchair and ran as the loudspeaker blared the lockdown code. Riku ran to Vanitas and freed him from his chair. “Come on, I got a key card.”

“What about the fence?” Vanitas stumbled away from the wheelchair before getting his balance. Having to shout over the blaring alarm was working his psychosis but he ground his teeth as they broke into a run toward the exit. 

Not at all surprised that no one was there to stop them, Riku swiped the key to their freedom and they made their way across the thick grass that was damp from the sprinkler system. On the outside, HHH looked like a spa or a very posh retirement home but from the inside, it was just another locked door. When they reached the fence Riku glanced back at the building and seemed to be counting windows as he mumbled to himself. Turning back to the fence he grabbed Vanitas’ hand and ran to a strip of hedges. Ducking behind them, he pushed the chain-link open and crawled through.

 

Dr. Martin paced in his office, yelling into the phone. “I want them apprehended, but don’t bring them back here! Either of them! I researched their claims and they were both claiming the same dead body as a victim! I have no idea!” he fell silent while he listened and then collapsed into his chair. “I have no record of the two ever having known one another before they met here…it is possible but…yes I am aware and will send you our last recorded conversations.” 

When the call was ended he immediately called the head of his security. “Are they gone?”

“Yes sir. The cameras showed both going behind the hedges on the north fence and when we searched, we found a breach. Someone must have tipped him off.”

“Very well. I will call maintenance to repair that and as soon as everyone has had their lunch we’ll return to a normal schedule.”

Turning to look out the window, he hoped that they never came back, He had been dealing with the Vampire of Twilight Town for longer than he wanted already…let someone else have a crack at him.

 

Once the two fugitives found their way through the densely wooded area north of the hospital, they walked briskly to an abandoned house that had been taken over by the homeless, drug addicts, and drunks. Exhausted, they found a corner and slid down the wall. Riku rubbed his face, still giggling quietly while Vanitas panted and inspected his bare feet. They would have been in far worse shape but Riku insisted on carrying him piggyback most of the way. “Where do you want to go?”

“Destiny island…it’s out of mainland jurisdiction.”

Vanitas nodded. “I have some money stashed if its still there…so we don’t have to start with nothing.”

“Where is it?” Riku took over the foot inspection and then began looking around at the other occupants of the house. Vanitas was sure he was sizing up their feet. Looking as well, he nodded toward a sleeping man in the next room. “I like those ones.”

Riku nodded and went immediately to retrieve the shoes. The man woke and of course protested loudly and drunkenly to which Riku replied with a smile. “I can take the shoes or I can take your eyes…either is fine and both will satisfy a need…and neither will fucking kill you. Shoes?”

The man kicked off the shoes and cowered until Riku walked away. Returning to Vanitas with his gently used sneakers, he sat back down. “Sorry you don’t have socks…I hate wearing shoes without socks.”

Vanitas arched a brow and thought to himself what an odd thing for one who eats other people to have a hang-up about, but kept it to himself. “We should wait until night-time to move, yeah?”

“No, that’s what they’ll be expecting.” Riku nodded and scanned the room again. “We can swap clothes with some people here…it’s starting to cool off in the evenings so if you wear a jacket it won’t be weird…to cover your ink I mean. I can wear a beanie.”

Vanitas nodded and they set about bargaining and threatening people out of their clothing.

 

Lunch came and went at HHH and the patients resumed their regular schedule. No one noticed anything amiss because Riku had been put on lockdown and Vanitas was presumed dead and eaten, per Axel’s gossip. Sora/Nami had lamented not being able to see Riku while Sora/Xion bitched because he had eaten Vanitas…Sora/Sora was in turmoil and didn’t even know why…he didn’t care for either of them. 

Axel sat on the patio smoking with Roxas. “Torch?”

“Hmm?”

“Will you be my boyfriend?” Roxas smiled, awaiting a speech about how he couldn’t be his boyfriend because he couldn’t do the sex, because he had cut off his extra bits and left them for his bible thumping parents to take with them to hell…but the speech never came.

“Can I tell Reno that you’re my girlfriend?”

“Sure, I think he might know that I’m a boy though…”

Axel looked suspiciously at the blonde. “You’re not a boy.”

“I have boy parts…I thought you knew.” Roxas was wishing that he had never opened his mouth.

“You have boy parts? Down there?” Axel glanced at his cut-off, rolled-up pants and then blushed and turned his head. “You can’t be my girlfriend if you have boy parts.”

Roxas nodded and looked away. “Alright.”

Axel scowled and watched the blonde seem to become smaller and smaller the longer she sat there…he sat there. “Why do you want me to be your boyfriend anyway? I can’t do the sex with you even if you had girl parts to do it with. I don’t even know how to kiss a girl or a boy for that matter. I’m a crazy person…that’s what they all say…I’m a nutter and I’m going to hell for killing my mom and dad. That’s not a good boyfriend…good boyfriends don’t kill their parents and peel their burned skin off. Did you know that it all looks the same underneath? It does.”

Roxas wiped the tears he had allowed himself while he was turned away. Turning to face him, he smiled sadly. “I think you’d be a great boyfriend even though you don’t have all your parts…and just so you know I’m quite happy with the parts that I have. I think it’s beautiful that you’ve never kissed anyone before and I truly can’t judge you for being crazy because I am in the same mental hospital as you. While you know that murdering your parents was wrong, you should also know that it was wrong of them to not seek help for you outside the church…and you’re not going to hell.”

“What about the skin?”

“The skin, well…that’s kind of gross but some people pick their nose so…”

Axel laughed out loud and Roxas smiled as he pilfered another cigarette from the redhead’s pocket. 

“Roxanne…”

“Yes, Torch?”

“Why are you here? You’re not crazy.”

“Thanks for the up-vote but the law says that I am because I killed someone…and tried to kill myself…a few times.”

“Why would you do that?”

“Because I thought that being dead would be easier than being alive at that point in time.”

“Why?”

“Because I was very unhappy.”

“Are you unhappy now?”

“Not at the moment, no.”

“But you cried…just now.”

“You weren’t supposed to see that.”

“Why?”

“Because I didn’t want you to, ok? I didn’t want you to see my crying. I’m ugly when I cry.” 

Axel took both Roxas’ hands and bored into him with green eyes wide. “You’re never ugly. Not when you eat, or when you smoke…when you laugh and when you sleep during the movie after dinner. You remember that time you threw up last winter when you had the flu and they made you come to rec anyway? You weren’t even ugly then.”

By the time he had finished, Roxas was laughing, “You are soo good for me. You are the best medicine of all, Torch.” He squeezed the big hands that held his and watched the redhead’s smile finally reach his eyes.

After walking too get more snacks in silence, Axel’s pace slowed and Roxas looked up to see the familiar glazed stare. Smiling, he slowed his pace until Axel came around again. “Where’d you go?”

“You can’t be my girlfriend.” Axel murmured.

“We covered that…its ok.” Roxas nodded.

“Would you want to be my boyfriend though?” Axel scowled. “Because you do have the parts and if I called you my girlfriend it would just be weird…after I thought about it I don’t think I like your nickname anymore…Roxanne is a girl’s name. It seems kind of like an insult. Does it bother you? I mean does it make you sad? Because I really don’t like it when you’re sad. It makes my stomach hurt and I worry that you might cut yourself more…or again and worse and what of you die?!”

“Axel, Axel!” Roxas stopped his walking which had increased at the same rate as his speech until he was nearing a trot. “I won’t cut myself anymore. I’m not going to die.”

The redhead was panting and staring into his eyes. “You promise me right now that you won’t die.”

“I promise.” Roxas nodded and Axel pulled him against his chest and whispered into his hair “You are the good thing…you are the good thing that Reno said would happen to me one day.” 

 

The first night Riku and Vanitas were free, they got drunk and climbed a fence to swim in a hotel pool and the next day they stowed away on a freight ship headed for Destiny Island. Vanitas began to feel a bit of withdrawal from his medications, nothing major just a little dizziness and nausea. By the time they reached the Island, he was fine, but Riku was completely unhinged. He was whispering to himself constantly and refused to move about during the day at all. He claimed that the sun would burn away his skin. After a few days on the island, he stopped eating and started stalking young women.

Vanitas tried talking sense to him because if a sociopath had one thing it a sense of self-preservation…and he knew he wasn’t going to get far following a delusional psychopath. A month into his freedom, he was wrestling Riku for a disembodied limb that he had hid in their shitty motel room. In addition to avoiding the sun, Riku had stopped bathing. All he cared about was finding his next victim and then finding a decent dump site…and he was becoming careless about that. Finally giving up and allowing him to gnaw on the still bloody arm, Vanitas made a decision…to save them both.


	6. E

E

Everyone in the rec room looked up and some watched enviously as the nurse announced “Axel Sinclair and Roxas Strife, you have a visitor. Please follow me to the visitor’s lounge.”

“Lounge?” Roxas hissed as he trotted off alongside Axel.

“Lounge. I get to see Reno in the lounge because I’m a level C flight risk.”

“Am I?”

“Probably? I don’t know. We can ask, well you can ask…they won’t tell me because I don’t have permission to know that stuff about you…unless you tell me. If you tell me its ok for me to know.” Axel grabbed Roxas’ hand and followed the nurse through a set of double doors.

The visitor’s lounge looked like the lobby of a fancy hotel, the likes of which Roxas had only seen on television except for when he got picked up by that one rich guy from out of town. What he thought was going to be his Pretty Woman moment turned out to be a gang bang that landed him in the e.r. Wincing at the memory, he peered around at the potted plants and trees and then sighed. 

“Wait here.” She smiled at the two of them and then left them alone. Roxas gaped in disbelief but Axel wasn’t even surprised. Looking up at his very tall boyfriend, he smiled and received a small kiss for his sweetness. 

“Wanna sit while we wait?”

“Sure…but…” Axel looked at one particular sofa that was upholstered in leather.

“We can sit here. It looks like the best place to me.”

Axel beamed and went to his other favorite seat. “I always sit here…even though I’m not allowed to clean this one, they assure me every time that it’s very clean. Very clean.”   
Roxas smiled and sat, anxiously awaiting the much talked about and often quoted brother, Reno. Gazing out the huge windows at the manicured lawn and perfectly trimmed hedges, he could almost smell the spruce pines and firs that grew along the fence (they probably thought he foliage made it look less institutional…they were right). Noting the nearly bare oaks, he felt sad that the holidays were approaching again. Holidays had always made him sad and he guessed they always would. Nothing good ever came on a holiday, even his whore mother said so.

Roused from internally bemoaning the season by the door opening again, he saw another tall redhead dressed in a suit and tie enter the room and stop, his face splitting into a grin. “Axel!”

Axel jumped (obviously lost in his own head) and stood, tugging Roxas along. “Reno!”

There were hugs and whispered words of affection and then an introduction. “Hello, Roxas. Nice to meet ya. How’s my big brother been treatin ya?”

“Very well, thank you. It’s nice to finally meet you. He talks about you all the time.” Roxas smiled and then glanced up at Axel as they resumed their seat on the second favorite spot. “You didn’t tell me that you were the big brother.”

“I am.” Axel nodded. “I’m older by three minutes.”

“Twins! Amazing. You never said.”

Reno smiled at Axel and the love in his gaze was palpable. “He’s always been tha big brother. He’s always looked out for me, yo.”

“It must come naturally for him.” Roxas squeezed his hand. “I don’t know what I would do without him now.”

“When he told me that he had a sweetheart, I was kinda worried, yo. He’s a giving soul and I was worried that someone would take advantage of him in here.” Reno looked at their joined hands and then smiled at Axel. “I can’t get over how happy ya look. I tell ya if this little blondie makes ya smile like that, then I approve.”

Axel grinned. “How long can you stay?”

“I got all afternoon. Wanna get somethin to eat and go for a walk? It’s kinda chilly out so you may want to get a coat.” Reno looked at them both and then glanced in the direction of the huge windows. Roxas couldn’t contain his excitement and blurted. “I’ve never been allowed in the big garden.”

Reno smiled and quickly disguised his pity. “Maybe I should make sure its ok…wouldn’t want ya to get into trouble.”

Axel agreed but Roxas looked a bit shot down and nodded. Instead of going away to talk in private, Reno called the nurse over so that she would have to give the verdict on front of some of the prettiest blue eyes he had ever seen. “It will be ok for Roxas to accompany us to the cafeteria and then outside, correct?”

“Of course.” She smiled. “I don’t think there’s anyone here that a Turk can’t handle.”

Reno nodded and then turned to the couple. “Shall we?”

Axel chuckled and followed, pulling Roxas along. 

 

After a meal of food that they never served to the patients who weren’t allowed cafeteria privileges (which Roxas made sure to mention since Reno was a Turk and Turks got shit done), they made a quick trip back to their rooms to get coats. When they returned, Reno was standing casually speaking to the warden about meal plans and nutrition. 

Their foray outside allowed him time to get to know the blonde who had captivated his brother. “So what has he told you about why he’s here?”

“Pretty much everything…about your parents and the church and the burning. He also told me about what he did to himself.” Roxas stuffed his hands deeper into his pockets.  
“What has he told you about me?”

“Not as much as I learned from your background check, yo.” Reno lit a smoke and offered Roxas one. Axel had left their side to feed the ducks on a pond that Roxas didn’t even know was on the property and had no idea that they were discussing him. Roxas took the offered smoke and smirked. “So is this the part where you tell me to never speak to him again?”

“If ya think I would do that to him, then you don’t know me well enough.” He chuckled. “There ain’t a lot that I would deny him.” Reno watched Axel feed some of the ducks and run away from others shrieking. “What are you getting out of this relationship besides free snacks and conversation?”

Roxas snorted. “Are you asking that because of my background check? Because I gotta tell you those free snacks are the deal breaker.”

Reno didn’t smile. “Does he know how old you are?”

“No, but would he care?” Roxas felt his confidence dwindling.

“Does he know that you were a whore?” 

The blonde barked a laugh and held his arms wide, making a runway turn in his leopard print coat that was cinched tight at the waist. “Should I say the words?”

“Yes.” Reno nodded. “Also…your last name… “

Roxas shook his head, knowing that the Turk was merely pushing him to see if he would lie. “Highwind…my mom is from Rocket Town…dumb whore. She claimed on my birth record that my dad was some military hotshot that banged her when he was passing through. It wasn’t contested so…”

“What if I know said military hotshot and request a DNA on his behalf?”

“Can you even do that? Is that legal?” Roxas snapped and Reno stopped walking and waved his hands as if to indicate that he wore the uniform of a Turk.

All that’s missing is the cape, you asshole…you huge pus-weeping asshole. Why did you have to make me say all this shit out loud and I know you’re just going to make me say it again, to Axel, and he’s going to hate me. Well I hate you Mr. Turk, mister big time ShinRa company ass-kisser, bleeding dick-hole, fucking walking genital wart on a tranny’s asshole…Roxas smiled bitterly but said nothing.

“There’s some stuff ya need ta know about Axel…stuff he won’t bother to tell you because he wouldn’t see the need.” Reno started to walk again. “We’re from a shit-hole place…worse than Rocket Town. We didn’t have nothin growin up and our folks were so reliant on the church that they figured if the church didn’t provide it, we didn’t need it. That made for a lot of missed meals and shit…and in his case, not getting doctors and medication that would’ve helped him and saved their lives. I believe in karma, Roxas Strife and I believe that if you have truly paid your dues, then you’ll get a return.”

“So how much more do I have to pay?” Roxas mumbled dejectedly, his self-esteem once again in the shitter.

“I think ya paid up, blondie.” Reno patted his back. “I know where ya been cause I been there too…and while I got drafted into this life, you got incarcerated but if you look back far enough into our pasts, we were the same person once.”

“Are you saying you were…”

“Yep…and he don’t know exactly what that is…so when you tell him about your past, you can tell him that I did the same thing when we were younger, before I was a Turk, and he won’t judge ya.” Reno nodded and Roxas smiled. “Thanks.”

“No problem. Ya make him happy…he should have what makes him happy.” Reno took a card from his pocket and passed it to the blonde. “If ya ever need anything…call me.”  
Roxas nodded as he took the card and turned it over in his hand. “The DNA test…”

“Is already in tha works… “

“But how…”

“Cup from ya bathroom trash…tha part ya didn’t eat.”

Roxas scowled and pulled his coat tighter around him. “No more of that. Is there anything else you need?”

“N-no.” Roxas shook his head “Thank you.”

“No problem, yo. Just remember that’s my life over there runnin from those ducks…don’t hurt him.”

 

Vanitas stared at the ceiling as he ignored the prick of the IV needle and tried to shut out the sound of Riku screaming that still echoed in his head. With any luck at all, the psycho would never figure out that he’s the one who made the call and gave them up. Listening to the sounds in the sterile room, he closed his eyes but all he could see was Riku’s face…enraged…absolutely insane…beautiful and crazed and probably at this moment, only hours after they were moved from a cell, waking up from his drug-induced coma.  
A scream from outside the room jarred him and he instinctively sat up. “Let him in.”  
“What?” the nurse looked horrified and was frozen in her spot at the sound of her colleague’s screams.  
“He wants to see me…see that I’m alright. Let him in before he kills someone.” Vanitas yanked the IV from his arm and turned, swinging his legs over the side of the gurney. Just as he did, the door slammed open and Riku stormed in, grabbed him, and tossed him over his shoulder, and stomped back to his cubicle. The nurse stood staring, unable to make a sound.

Later that afternoon in the therapist’s office, Riku stared blankly forward while he ignored questions and statements…and thought of how he had gotten to this point. His memories were jumbled but the pieces he could put together made sense. He thought he had escaped the hospital but he wasn’t sure. He had eaten something that made him very sick but he wasn’t sure what…or who it was. He thought Vanitas somehow had a hand in getting him help but he wasn’t sure why a sociopath would help anyone other than himself. Pondering that, he eventually came back around to wondering why Vanitas had been with him in the first place. Reaching back into his boggled mind, he realized his last truly lucid memory was of Dr. Martin declaring that he was going to change his medication regimen completely. Returning to reality to the drone of the man’s voice, he turned aqua eyes to him. “I guess changing my meds was a bad idea…yes?”

The doctor fell into stunned silence.

Riku stared briefly and then took a deep cleansing breath. “In hindsight…was changing my meds so radically a good idea?”

“It wasn’t a good idea…but I had to know…I had to try something to give you some relief from your affliction.” The doctor watched him process, thinking that they hadn’t had a lucid, non-violent conversation since his initial interview. “I want you to be your best.”

“My best… “ Riku wandered off mentally again but made his return much faster than before. “I want more freedom…I want to have…to be social.”

“You may do that when you have proven that you are no longer a threat.”

“How can I prove that when I’m locked in a room alone?”

The doctor smiled and stood. Riku was tethered to his chair as per safety regulations, so he looked up at the smiling man and furrowed his brow.   
“You will prove it the next time you are denied something, by not becoming violent.”

“Fine.” Riku shrugged. “Whatever.”

“Do you realize this is the longest we have ever spoken without you becoming angry or belligerent?”

“It must be all that lithium.” Riku snorted and the doctor chuckled. “How do you know that is what we gave you?”

“I taste licorice when I get the shot.”

“Really?” Dr. Martin watched him and then began to pace. “Do you taste different things for different medications or just lithium?”

“Demerol tastes bitter, but its been so long since I’ve had that.” Riku shook his head. “My head is too messed up to remember the names of the others. One is like really sweet, one is exactly like charcoal and it always makes me vomit, and one is like…Vanitas’ smells like…green tea but with something else…a fruit a tropical fruit.”

The doctor seemed pleased. “How would you feel about going to recreation with the other patients?”

“I think they’d be scared of me.” Riku giggled.

“I will allow you one hour tomorrow…with the others, and you can prove to me that have yourself under control.”

“No fighting. I promise.” Riku nodded.


	7. F

F

“Fuck’s sake…” Riku wasn’t expecting the screams when he entered the rec room. The looks he expected, but the way Sora shrieked and ran from him caught him off guard. Outwardly unaffected by any of it, he strolled casually (even though on the inside he was slithering) over to the green sofa and sat…on the spot…on THE spot. He looked around for the uptight redhead but didn’t see him, so he relaxed and waited for the inevitable.

Dr. Martin had told him that he had an hour and he promised to go peacefully when his hour was up. He glanced at the clock and then turned his eyes to the television, then glanced back at the clock. Ten minutes had passed and not a single other person had spoken to him or even walked in his direction. He began to feel angry. Why did he even feel the need to be a part of something so ridiculous? Yes it beat the boredom of sitting in his room jerking off all day to cooking shows, but really…why did he need to socialize. 

He thought of going outside onto the patio but then remembered that his badge had been revoked. Sighing he looked up at the clock again. He had forty five more minutes and then it was back to Rachel Ray and Iron Chefs. Glancing in Sora’s direction once more, he picked up a magazine and began looking for the recipe section.

“I can’t believe you said that!” Roxas’ bubbly voice rang through the rec room as he shoved the door open with his foot. Axel was carrying him piggyback and they were chatting about their recent brush with a guard who scolded them for being loud. Axel had threatened him with his brother. The laughter abruptly stopped when their eyes fixed on the person who’s ass now rested on Axel’s spot. Riku. “We should go talk to him, Torch…he’s been gone a long time.”

“He ate Vanitas…what if he eats you too?” Axel hissed and the two stared Riku down as he stared back at them. “And he’s on my spot.”

“I think he probably sat on your spot so we would be forced to interact with him.” 

“You’re so smart.” Axel scowled. “Let’s go. I won’t let him eat you.”

Approaching the green sofa and unable to restrain his disgust, Axel snapped. “That’s my spot…you’re sitting on it.”

Riku smiled and glanced at Roxas. “I see you made a friend.”

“He’s my boyfriend…and just so you know, you can’t eat him.” Axel sassed.

“That ship has sailed, Torch…and I’m happy for you both. Here, you can have your spot.” Riku slid over and glanced at the clock again-forty minutes.

“You seem different…they fix your meds?” Roxas asked, staying close to Axel even though his mind flashed memories of the ill-fated threesome he had with Vanitas and Riku wherein he nearly died.

“Yeah they changed some stuff.” Riku nodded. “I have to stay out of trouble…so I can see Vanitas.”

Axel’s head snapped around. “You ate him! How will you ever see him again?”

“I didn’t eat him.” Riku snapped and then checked his temper. “I did not eat Vanitas.”

“But he hasn’t been back…we all thought he was dead and the nurse said a bunch of stuff and words that day they had a lockdown but I started thinking and no one put me in my room. I went to the meeting and I heard them say cannibalism...that means when people eat other people and we all know that Vanitas was going to see you in your new cell…you got a cell not a room because you eat people! YOU EAT PEOPLE!!!”

Roxas was trying to calm Axel down and Riku’s eyes just kept getting larger and larger the louder Axel shouted and just as he stood and was backing toward the door, he bumped into someone. Turning with every intention of running, not walking back to his room, he found himself face to face with Vanitas. “Hi…I hear you eat people.”

“Vanitas.” He sputtered but his mouth was dry and his heart was racing.

The tattooed patient smiled and put a hand on his elbow. Riku looked at it and then back at his yellow eyes. “Vanitas.”

“Yes…we covered that a second ago.” Vanitas tugged his arm. “Come on, I want a smoke.”

“I don’t have a badge.”

“I do.” 

Riku looked around suspiciously. Dr. Martin knew that Vanitas had a badge to get out onto the smoking patio but he allowed him to join him in rec anyway…why? Was this another test? If it was, he was going to pass with flying colors. Following him out onto the patio, Riku sat on the picnic table and looked around. Seeing no cameras or watchers, he turned back to Vanitas. “Torch says that Roxanne is his boyfriend.”

“Wow…guess she’s off the menu…bad joke, sorry.”

“I meant…I just thought that it was weird because Torch is missing the parts that I always thought were Roxy’s favorite.” 

Vanitas chuckled. “Maybe she’s found her prince.”

“Her what?” Riku watched Vanitas smoke and talk and decided that he really liked the way the smoke came out in small puffs with his words…almost like his words were visible.

“She told me once when we were…when she used to sneak to my room a lot, that she was waiting for her prince to come. She said, and she truly believed that one day some guy was going to come along and fall in love with her…and not just because she gave great head or let him have his way with her.”

“Guess she was right.” Riku mused and then his expression turned darker as memories floated to the surface like bloated corpse. “I hurt her once…”  
Vanitas eyed him warily and nodded. “I apologized…more than once.”

“But I never did.” Riku pondered and then wondered why, even though the memory of her crying annoyed him, he didn’t feel like he was sorry for what he did. He felt completely justified and saw no wrong in it. “Why did you?”

Vanitas shrugged. “I felt bad that she wasn’t into it…I was disappointed. I thought the three of us could’ve been a thing for a while.”

Riku nodded and peered at the clock inside. “I have twenty minutes.”

“Martin said we’ll have one day per week as long as we stay out of trouble.” Vanitas nodded and pressed his cigarette butt into the tall receptacle. Riku looked into his eyes and saw a smile begin to curve his lips. 

“We can do that.” Riku touched his hand and then slipped his arm around him and looked around for an orderly or guard to come and drag him away…but they didn’t. He was glad but somehow he felt like it was a trap. Something was up and no one was telling him. Someone knew something… 

As if on cue, Vanitas lay his head on Riku’s shoulder and whispered. “We have fifteen minutes.”

“Walk me back to my room?” Riku smirked.

“Sure.” Vanitas stood and nodded. “Wanna try something new?”

“Sure.” Riku giggled and they walked back through rec without speaking to anyone. Sora was still cowering in the corner.

 

At dinner, everyone got a huge surprise. They were herded from their rooms down to the cafeteria and seated. They talked amongst themselves in whispers until the food began to arrive. Because some patients had special diets, their plates were passed out from carts like the ones they used to deliver to their rooms but the food…the food was not the usual fare. The cafeteria got noisy and no one yelled and then as they began to eat, it grew quiet. The dining hall was set up like a large restaurant with a choice of table or booth, and as Riku looked around for Vanitas, he heard a quiet voice. “Dude, I’m late. Can I sit here?”

Looking up at the monochrome figure beside him, he nodded once and wondered if the guy was new or if he just had a death wish. Oddly enough, he got that sometimes…in the past anyway. Now and then someone would figure him out and do one of two things-call the cops or ask him to kill them. People were strange and a never ending source of amusement.

“Hi. I’m Zexion.” The faded photo guy smiled timidly and Riku immediately checked his facial expression to be sure that he wasn’t scowling. He wasn’t. “Hi…Riku.”  
Zexion flinched and Riku could see the wheels turning and as the color drained from his face…Riku’s smile spread at the exact same rate. 

“I I I…” Zexion gaped but clearly didn’t know whether or not he should flee since everyone else seemed reasonably calm about his presence.

“Don’t worry.” Riku smiled. “I don’t bite.” Flashing a wide grin, he saw the terror behind bluish gray eyes.

“So so so…” Zexion was holding up a single finger and seemingly losing a battle within his own mind.

“Yesss.” Riku continued to grin and when he saw the panic begin to subside, he chomped his teeth and watched it return with a vengeance. He stared at Zexion silently until he saw tears welling in his wide eyes. He could taste the fear that seemed to hang between them in the booth where they sat facing one another and tasting fear had one very powerful intimate effect on Riku.

“Do do do y-you…”

“No.” Riku sat back and averted his eyes, taking a deep breath and scanning the room for Vanitas once again. “I can’t do that…anymore.”

“Con con congrats… I g-guess.”

“You know…Zex, there are lots of great doctors here who can help you with that stutter.” Aqua blues returned to the nervous table mate and Riku tried hard not to smile…he tried so hard. Failed.

“I don’t st-st-stutter.” Zexion squeaked and lay his hands flat on the table top in an attempt to stop the from shaking. Just as their food was being placed on the table, Vanitas slid into the booth beside Riku and nodded to Zexion, then glanced down at Riku’s lap. “Woa…am I interrupting?”

“N-nnnn…” Zexion shook his head vigorously and Riku giggled and slurped drool between his teeth and bit his lip, leaning toward Vanitas. “Zexion is just a little scared.”

“Ooh hahaha!” Vanitas cackled and grabbed Riku and squeezed. Looking across the table at the newcomer, he became serious. “I won’t say he’s harmless but I will say that he feeds on fear…so make your peace with him or stay away.”

They proceeded to eat in silence. Vanitas would glance at Riku now and after seeing the rare steak on his plate, Zexion kept his eyes down. Finally when they were served dessert (a special treat) Vanitas decided to try and ease the new guy’s mind a bit. “So Zexion…how long will you be with us?”

“They gave me thirty years but I probably won’t do more than ten, my lawyer says.” He nodded and glanced at Riku because he was a famous serial killer and he couldn’t help himself. “How about you guys?”  
Vanitas pulled an eek face. :Depends on how many bodies they find…probably life.”

“Definitely life.” Riku nodded and sipped his coffee.

 

That evening during the movie, Roxas quietly and tearfully confessed his past to Axel, who only wanted him to stop crying and be happy again. He didn’t care about his past (he truly didn’t and he said the words) and he hated to see him cry (he loved his smile and the sound of his laughter). Once he had told him everything in general terms (he decided that no details would be given unless he asked), he whimpered “Do you hate me now?”

“No I could never…” Axel kissed him a little more forcefully than he had taught him, but Roxas seemed to like it. 

A few rows back, Sora was whispering to himself, making Zexion question whether or not he should have sat closer to the cannibal, who was at the very back of the small theater getting head from his boyfriend/handler/whatever he was.


	8. G

G

“Goddammit.” Vanitas panted and tried to be quiet but he was coming to grips with the fact that he was bleeding profusely and Riku was once again out of control. He was going to need stitches. Reaching out to plant the heel of his hand in Riku’s chest, he shoved and when he got adequate space between them, hit him again directly in the sternum. Riku gasped and grabbed his chest, abandoning the tattooed shoulder that he had been literally feeding on, and stared down at Vanitas from a haze between craze and shock. 

“Fucking stop.” Vanitas crawled away from him and immediately began to dress. He was dizzy from blood loss and the room was spinning already…he had to get away before Riku decided to just finish him off. “I need the doctor’s now…I won’t tell them that you did it.”

Riku watched him, trying to process his words but his eyes kept returning to the slowly widening bloodstain on his shirt. “I’ll carry you…”

“No, dumbass…they’ll know you did it.” Vanitas began to stagger and Riku grabbed him and lifted him off the floor. That was the last memory the raven haired patient had until he woke up in the infirmary. 

 

Riku sat in the office hashing it out with Dr. Martin. “I don’t know where the line is! I am aware of a line but I do not know where it is! The line is invisible to me!”

The doctor watched his infamous patient rage about his own shortcomings and the expression on his face proved that he wanted to get better…and that was progress. “Calm down…first of all, we can work on some techniques to help you learn where the line is. How are you getting along with the other patients when you go to rec?”

“Fine…I mean they don’t bother me.”

“That’s good. We’re going to try this for a few more weeks and then we’ll up your social time and you may also sign up for one class. I’ll have a list prepared the next time you come in.”

“Thanks but…if I get tired of going to rec and want to skip a day will it affect my progress negatively?” Riku pondered out loud but the question caught the doctor completely off-guard. “No…no if you decide not to go, then that is acceptable but if you decide not to go back ever, that may be an issue we need to address.”

“Cool.”

That was closer to par with what he had come to expect from the killer so he nodded and closed his file. Pressing the button for the guard to escort him back to his room, he thought that real progress was being made and he felt a bit better. Of course it would all be for nothing when he finally received a court date for the murder of the female guard. He would be convicted as the video evidence was very damning, and he may be sent to a higher security facility. Sighing, he set about making phone calls to the only two facilities he knew that would qualify to keep Riku, and urged them to decline on the grounds that he was currently making progress in his current facility. Of course he would have to go to the trial and make his case to keep the patient in his current setting. The warden would need to testify as to how security had been adjusted after the incident as well. He stood to get his coat and after looking around the office he had held for nearly twenty years, he sighed and flipped off the light.

 

Sora sat contentedly at a table in the rec room. He was being allowed to walk in the flower garden again… on a trial basis. He had to walk with a group this time but if he behaved he was sure that eventually he would be allowed to go with just Namine and Xion. He looked forward to that. Even though they were with him all the time, he never tired of their attention, and since Riku and Vanitas seemed obsessed with each other, they hadn’t visited during the night… so he got more sleep… and ironically his ass wasn’t always sore.

A nurse came through and called for the group who wanted to tour the garden and he tried not to appear too anxious. Torch and Roxanne were going, as well as the new guy, Riku, Vanitas, and the guy who always sat in the corner and never talked. Sora wasn’t even sure what his name was but he always wore a beanie, never talked, and shuffled his feet when he walked. So the shuffler was going and oddly enough, Sora got a good look at his face as they formed the group. The shuffler was younger than he expected, taller than he expected, a bit angry-looking when he realized that Sora was squinting at his face, and his eyes were green.

Everyone was shocked to find that the winter garden was beautiful. There had been a discussion on the way over about what types of flowers and plants wouldn’t be there but few of them had any idea what would be there. The trip was a success and the shuffler kept up with everyone else. Sora and his girls chatted amongst themselves and the new guy kept looking at Riku… which seemed to annoy Vanitas. That may or may not pose a problem in the future.

After a surprise tea in the garden, the group headed back in a much better mood. The holidays were approaching fast and there would be more activities to keep minds occupied. Every year it seemed the holidays brought more sorrow than cheer to HHH and every year there was at least one suicide attempt… for three years running one of those attempts had been made by the same person. 

 

Back inside and settled, they dispersed, going to classes or to their rooms. Some patients had been allowed room visitations to keep down disturbing displays of affection as well as to make their lives more normalized. Riku sat staring at Vanitas in his small room. It seemed void of any of his personal things and that was oddly disturbing to Riku who was becoming increasingly paranoid of late but kept it to himself. “What did you think of the garden?”

Vanitas shrugged.

“What do you like to do besides fuck?”

“Fight.” Vanitas mumbled and toed his chair leg absently. Riku thought he seemed to be waiting on something but he had no idea what. He sucked at socializing and had never had a normal relationship… ever. Even his first best friend in grammar school was chosen because she let him put his hands underneath her dress. He eventually killed her by shoving her down a ravine and bashing her over the head with a rock. He sighed as his mind drifted back to the present where there was a warm body waiting for him to do… something. 

Vanitas watched him and wondered what he was thinking but was afraid to ask. Recently he had decided that he wanted to claim Riku as his own. He felt he had no right and he assumed that the killer was still making his rounds with Namine but he hadn’t mentioned it and he wasn’t going to ask. He had also decided that even if Riku just wanted to keep things as they were, he would continue to have sex with him… because he was Riku and because Vanitas was becoming aware that he himself was done living. There was no point to anything anymore and he would be damned if he was going to grow old in the goddamn asylum. Watching Riku carefully for signs that he was going to speak, he saw none, so he made an offer. “Want to take a bath with me?”

Mild surprise flashed in aqua eyes and then a small smile and a shrug. “Sure.”

As they undressed, independently of one another, not like lovers, Vanitas tried to focus on the sound of the water filling the tub. Looking over at Riku’s long legs, he thought of the terror their speed and strength must have struck in his victims… and the hands… his hands were fucking huge and in Vanitas’ opinion, scarier than the smile that bared the teeth. At rest Riku was beautiful and at his worst, at his very darkest, covered in blood, he was seraphic. 

Riku watched the tattoos being revealed and wished silently that Vanitas would slow down… make it more erotic. He loved the colorful skin and felt a bit sad when he saw the ugly pink scar on his shoulder where he had chewed away the flesh. The skin graft however looked decent, considering. Reaching out, he quickly drew his hand back when Vanitas turned to face him and pile his clothes onto the counter. He wondered why he stared at his body so intently and wondered too if maybe Vanitas wanted to know what his flesh tasted like… maybe he would ask him… maybe he would say yes.

Sitting in the tub first, he reached for the other to sit but had no idea how he planned to fit both their persons into such a small space without hacking off some limbs… and he wasn’t in the mood. Vanitas smiled a bit and shook his head. “I clearly didn’t think this through.”

Riku chuckled and reached again. “We’ll make it work… come on.” He scooted forward and Vanitas sat carefully on his lap facing him with his legs on either side of him. His knees were underneath Riku’s arms and they stared at one another in silence. Vanitas wanted to die but he didn’t want to tell Riku… he knew Riku would do it for him but then he would be in trouble with the warden. Riku wanted to kiss Vanitas previously pierced lips but he didn’t know if he wanted him to or not. He didn’t seem to want to fuck but he wanted to be naked in a bath with him… Riku supposed he had a lot to learn about his friend… if he was in fact his friend.

Without meeting the yellow eyes, he lifted his hands from the water and rested them on tattooed knees, then slid them down tattooed thighs. The water was hot and smelled a bit like lavender… Riku knew what that was because there was some in the garden at the orphanage where he spent his early childhood. He had been adopted once but was returned and branded a troubled child.

Studying the brightly colored tattoos, he began to trace the lines… dragons, flowers, kanji, koi, water… “Vanitas… what does your name mean?”

“Emptiness… worthlessness.” Vanitas spouted what had been told to him by his mother and then waited to hear if it would be refuted. It was not.

“When did you start getting these?”

“When I was twelve.” He closed his eyes and focused on the tracing fingers, imagining the countless lives they had taken.

“I like them.”

Vanitas felt the soft press of lips to his healing shoulder and instantly recalled the searing pain of teeth ripping into his skin and muscle. He hissed quietly and shivered when Riku stopped tracing his tattoos and pulled him closer. His knees now behind Riku’s shoulders, he looked cross-eyed into aqua pools, noticing the curve they made when he smiled. Vanitas smiled in response and then kissed his lips.

Riku’s eyes became round but he tried to hide his surprise and delight at the kiss he was given. He had no idea what to say or if he should even say anything so he simply smiled again, this time bigger. Vanitas kissed him again and lingered against his lips seemingly awaiting some response… so Riku returned the kiss and took him into his arms like a lover would.  
He supposed he would be his lover if he had the ability to feel the emotion. He thought at one point in his life that he could but then… when he got close to someone, death soon followed. Allowing himself to get close to someone is what got him caught in the end and he vowed then that it would never happen again. As the kisses became more heated and he felt sure he knew where they were headed, he began to rethink the vow… asking himself what else did he have left to lose?

 

Riku lay on the edge of Vanitas’ small bed and pondered what the remainder of his life would be like living at HHH… or would he be sent away to serve the rest of his sentence somewhere else… in a place for more dangerous creatures like himself. Staring into yellow irises that reminded him of the sun, he pondered his existence and the impact his death would have on people like Vanitas… or Dr. Martin, or any member of his victims’ families. Life would go on for them and Vanitas would go back to fucking Sora/Xion, Dr. Martin would continue trying to help the others, and the families of his victims, well… they’d probably plan a party.

“What are you thinking?” Vanitas’ voice seemed to reach his ears without him moving his mouth and the fact that he had been so far gone in his own head that he didn’t notice the movement made him smile. Internally he had to decide whether to lie or tell the truth…

“I was thinking about how the rest of my life will play out now that I’m locked up. I wonder what will happen at the next trial… where I’ll end up… and how the people who know me will feel about it.” The truth wasn’t always something he shared but he felt like he could share it with Vanitas… besides, what did he have left to lose?

“I don’t want you to go away unless I get to go with you.” His face showed no emotion and the words hung between them like a dare. It was almost like a trade off, Riku thought, a truth for a truth. “They won’t send you to state… you didn’t kill her.”

“I helped you escape.” Vanitas licked his lips and Riku kissed them before he could censor his actions. “You did not.”

“I could have… they don’t know.” Vanitas argued quietly and smirked, making Riku laugh. Vanitas was entranced by the white teeth and the ease with which Riku seemed to laugh about their exploits and his own mortality. Everything about him was a contradiction to what it should have been… serial killers were vicious and feared, they were always angry or crazed… weren’t they? No. Serial killers were intelligent and sly and the could act any way they needed to in order to make their victims do what they wanted… and at the moment he was laughing… and his victim was enjoying every second of it.

 

Late that night after light out, when the televisions had been shut off and bed checks were complete, Riku went into his bathroom that was separated from his sleeping cell by a half wall, in order for them to keep a closer eye on him. The front wall of his cell was clear and sometimes to get privacy, he would sit in his bathroom floor against the short partition. Staring at his bathtub/shower combo, he thought of the day with Vanitas… the garden, the talking, the bath, the sex… and he wondered what he was doing at that moment. Vanitas was a sociopath so expecting him to harbor feelings of any romantic kind was a waste, and then his mind wandered to a darker place.

Thinking again of being sent to state penitentiary, he felt the tightness of panic and his jaw clinched. Swallowing hard, he closed his eyes and felt his stomach threaten to eject all it held. He blew out his breath and accepted it. If this was his last day, then is last day had been good.

Thick drool filled his mouth and he smiled before sinking his teeth into his wrist and biting down.


	9. H

H

“Here, your honor.” the lawyer gestured to where Riku sat between an armed guard and his other lawyer. Behind him sat Dr. Martin, two of his colleagues from HHH, and more guards. They wanted to make sure that no one got near the killer on his day of reckoning. Half the court-room seats were filled by the victim’s family members, some had come from as far away as Destiny Island to make sure that the monster got no pity, while the other side of the court-room was filled with john q public. Riku had no family or friends but what he did have were fans.

Men and women had showed up early and stood in line to get a seat to watch the proceedings. Some brought gifts and small tokens even though he was not allowed to have them. Some who didn’t get a seat, stood outside holding signs, some dressed as theatrical vampires. Riku didn’t care for the nickname the media gave him but he supposed it could have been far worse. 

When the trial began, he tried to keep himself awake by guessing the jurors’ professions according to their attire, and when he tired of that, he kept his head down (as per his lawyers’ advice) and tried to look remorseful. Looking down at his bandaged wrists, he thought of the night he spent in the hospital getting himself repaired.

They had rushed him to the e.r. and when he woke from surgery, Vanitas was being dragged out of the room kicking and screaming. How he had escaped from HHH Riku had no idea at the time, but later found out that he had stowed away in Dr. Martin’s car, assuming that he would be going there from his office. And if he hadn’t, Riku had asked the stoic artist, well he would have just gone home with the good doctor and rode back with him the next day. They had a chuckle over it but Vanitas was upset about his suicide attempt and seemed standoffish. He started keeping his distance and their evening visits fell off in the week leading up to the trial.

He became suddenly aware of the silence in the court-room and looked up, first at the judge, then at his lawyer, and finally at what was happening in the room. Gawkers were at every window looking inside. He watched them wave and assumed they were shouting to him… he could see their mouths moving but didn’t hear the words. Soon they were being pulled away by police officers and the prosecutor cleared her throat.   
He reflexively looked at her. Oops.

His lawyers had warned him against looking directly at the prosecutor or at the victims’ family members. His lawyers had given him many instruction and as he sat staring at the woman who wanted to see him put to death, the warning that jumped to the forefront to his mind was this: do not, under any circumstances… smile.

It was coming… just as sure as the words began to scroll across his gray matter like a Gold Saucer billboard and he felt it… like a turd that wouldn’t wait for you to reach the bathroom, it was coming whether he liked it or not. Thinking fast, he averted his eyes and reached for his water bottle. Taking a drink and squeezing his eyes shut, he tried his best to stuff it away but like putting organs back inside a gutted corpse, just because it went in, didn’t mean it would stay in.

Returning his water to the table, Dr. Martin leaned forward and touched his shoulder. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah… she keeps staring at me.” Riku hissed as quietly as he could and the doctor advised him to ignore her as much as possible and try to relax. He nodded, the smile warning still flashing in the back of his mind.  
He listened to the prosecutor paint the picture of a monster. When she cited his first kill taking place in middle school, he wanted to correct her but didn’t. After a lengthy warning, she began a slide show of smiling family photos followed by grisly crime scene photos. Riku averted his eyes and one of his lawyers leaned to him and asked him to watch. He tried not to scowl. Chewing the inside of his lip, he watched the show… and the more bloody crime scenes she flashed upon the screen, the more gore she presented, the more aroused Riku became.

Wondering how the fuck his lawyers didn’t see that coming, he sat staring at each photo while fast forwarding through his mental highlight reel. He really needed to go to the bathroom and jerk off. 

People were crying, three of the jurors had vomited and he was squirming in his seat. Pressing his hands into his lap, he shifted in his chair in order to feign looking at the screen. Noticing his discomfort, his lawyer wrote on a notepad- there will be a recess soon and you may go to the restroom. Riku nodded and tried to think of other things. It was not easy. The longer they sat and the obnoxious prosecutor yakked about the dead women, the harder it was not to cause a disruption. He wondered what would happen if he stood up… screamed out… threw a chair…

Finally the judge called for recess and he made his way to the bathroom with two guards. Once inside, he noted that one of them had followed him in and he looked at him as if to say- “you really don’t want to be in here.”

“Do what you gotta do… I can’t leave until you do. I can’t take your cuffs or shackles off, but I do have permission to help you with your clothes or wipe your ass.”

Riku snorted and laughed before he could stop himself and walked into the stall. This has nothing to do with my ass but you can help me clean up after.”

The guard watched him suspiciously as he elbowed the stall door closed. A few minutes later, the guard knew what he was doing and still had no choice but to wait. He finished relatively quickly and cleaned himself up as much as possible. Letting the door swing open, he looked the guard in the eye and nodded. “Your assistance will not be necessary… but thanks.”

Riku washed his hands and returned to his perch. The remainder of the day was spent on a verbal assassination of his character… not that he hadn’t already wrecked that by killing people, and finally the judge adjourned them for the day. As he stood, cuffed and shackled, and was moved toward the doors, the prosecutor seemed intent on making eye contact again, so he let her have it. He was tired. Riku had been his best person all day and he was exhausted from the memory rehashing. He wanted to go back to HHH and sleep.

She stared at him and he stared right back as he moved slowly toward the door. The family members were shouting obscenities at him and some had to be restrained by officers. When he finally reached the doorway, tired of the staring game with the prosecutor but not willing to give up and let her win, he did the one thing that wasn’t specified as a no-no. He winked at her.

Out on the street was another circus altogether. People were screaming his name and waving to get his attention. Cameras flashed and phones were pointed at him, gifts and flowers were tossed and someone even asked him to marry them, right there on the street as he was being stuffed into the car. Once seated, the cruiser pulled away from the curb and Riku sighed. He was asleep before they arrived at HHH and was met inside by Dr. Martin. “How do you feel?”

“Tired… just tired.”

“You should eat before you lie down… in case you sleep through.” He patted Riku’s back and started to walk away.

“Doc… can I ask you a question?”

“Of course.” He turned, interested as always.

“Do you think I’ll get the death penalty?”

“No.”

“You said that awfully fast.” Riku smiled as a guard released his shackles and cuffs.

“You weren’t in control of yourself when you did those things, Riku, because of a malfunction in your brain. It would be wrong to put you to death because of something you had no control over… it would be murder.”

Riku nodded and walked toward his wing, unescorted, unguarded, and of his own volition. As he did so, Dr. Martin turned to watch him and had a frightening revelation. If Riku was concerned for his life, then why had he recently tried to kill himself? Either his concern was not for his life but mere curiosity about the outcome of the trial… or the suicide attempt had been a ploy to avoid transfer to the state penitentiary?  
The trial dragged on and Riku continued to avoid everyone by sleeping when he wasn’t in court. The hordes of people who gathered just to watch him walk into the courthouse baffled him and he wondered where all these thrill-seekers had been when he was searching for victims. Face devoid of emotion he headed in to the court-room only to be beset by his lawyers. “She wants to put you on the stand.”

His mind reeled. He had spent the previous day listening to his own lawyers rehash every bad thing that had ever happened to him and even tried to blame the circumstances of his birth for his mental illness. He was fatherless, he was orphaned when his mother died in childbirth, he was bullied, he was abused, he was raped… the list went on and having lived it, he didn’t like having it read to the jury like a sob story. He had survived it… wasn’t that supposed to be the important part? Now this. He nodded.

“This can go really well or really badly, depending on how you play it. You want sympathy from the jury so at any point you feel like you can appear to be victimized by the prosecutor, do it, short of theatrics of course.” The two lawyers spoke in tandem making Riku’s eyes dart back and forth and he had begun to scowl. “Don’t do that… relax your face. You look very scary right now.”

He tried to relax his face and one of his lawyers, the shorter more frail looking one hissed. “When this is over I will waive my fee if you will just growl and snap your teeth at the prosecutor.”

Riku snorted and tried to squash a smile thinking that if he wasn’t a lawyer, that guy would probably be dressed like a vampire and holding a sign like the rest of the freaks. The other lawyer patted his shoulder. “Try not to get upset… she’ll probably just ask you questions to try and get you to say something derogatory about your victims. We know how smart you are so just trust your judgement up there and play her like a violin.”

Again he nodded and she called him first. He stood and waited for everyone to move so that he could be escorted up to the witness stand. Looking over at the jury as he walked by, he was mindful of his facial expression and made sure to keep his hands down. Along with the looks of disgust, he noted a few looks of pity and that would be his saving grace and he knew it.

During his defense, his lawyers had a slideshow of their own and that one Riku was allowed to look away from. Photos that had been taken by CPS from his early childhood made a few of the jurors gasp and then a stream of mug shots from his years in juvie as well as more photos from CPS taken in his early teens, shortly before he fled the system altogether. His next mug shot would be days before his nineteenth birthday when he was finally caught, already labeled the Vampire of Twilight Town.

On the stand he sighed shakily and looked around the court-room and then up at the judge who was only feet away. 

“Mr. Valentine… do you deny any of these killings you have been accused of?”

“Objection your honor! He has already been tried for all of the other crimes.” Skinny lawyer barked.

“Sustained.” The judge grumbled. “Prosecutor, you wanted him on the stand, he’s here… this is not a talk show… keep to the crime he's on trial for.”

“Mr. Valentine, do you deny killing your guard, Tracy Stevenson?”

“No.”

“Do you deny eating parts of her flesh?”

“No.”

“Would you say that you enjoyed it?”

“No.”

“Please explain to me then, if you did not enjoy it, why did you do it?”

Riku looked at his doctor and then at the jury before speaking. “I didn’t realize what I was doing until it was done.”

“You’ll forgive me if I don’t believe that since you had sex with another inmate while covered in her blood immediately afterward.” The lawyer took a breath but before she could ask another question, Riku blurted “You don’t need my forgiveness.”

She spun to face him. “You are correct. I do not. You are a liar and a manipulator and I believe everyone in this room is aware of it.”

“So are you, and you have a degree to prove it.” Riku snapped and his lawyers covered their faces and one of the jurors giggled.

“I rest, your honor.” She walked back to her chair and Riku’s lawyers spoke I unison. “We have nothing at this time your honor.”

Riku was ushered back to his seat and this began the stream of testimony from victims’ family members, many of them who were only able to answer one question because they had no relevance to the murder he was on trial for.

 

Back at HHH everyone was gathered around the communal television awaiting the evening news. Axel and Roxas had popcorn and Vanitas sat in the corner opposite the shuffler and pretended not to be interested. Sora was walking around nervously looking in the potted plants and mumbling about listening devices while swinging his colorful cast. He had gotten into an altercation with a guard when he was found masturbating in the winter garden when he was supposed to be at dinner. He put up a good fight but essentially lost when he tripped over his pants. He hadn’t bothered to pull them up and had managed to beat the shit out of the guard with them around his knees. When he stopped to pull them up he heard another guard coming and ran, eventually dropping them and tripping, falling on the cement fountain, breaking his arm.

Zexion was there but not a part of the small clique that Riku actually socialized with. He had done a few favors for a few people there to buy himself some internet time and found out that the entire trial had been filmed for a possible documentary and book, the sales of which would go to victims’ families. After a bit of digging, he found the footage and copied the link for later. He had no idea what if anything he would do with it but he figured it would be useful leverage if he needed it. Now he had to finagle a drive so that he could steal it.


	10. I

I

“In reference to the case of the state versus Riku Valentine, we the jury find the defendant not guilty of first degree murder by reason of insanity.” The foreman had to wait for the courtroom to quiet. “We request leniency in the sentencing phase given the defendant’s recent progress.”

“Thank you mister foreman. Your request will be considered and you are dismissed.” The judge turned to the court.

 

Riku arrived back at HHH and went to his room as had become his routine. Collapsing onto his bed, he turned his television to the cooking channel and watched until his eyes grew heavy. Dozing for what seemed like minutes, his intercom beeped. Rolling to look through the Plexiglas wall, he saw a tattooed watcher, expressionless, and far thinner than the last time he had seen him. 

He ran a hand through his spikey silver hair and walked over to where he stood on the outside. “Vanitas.”

“Dinner.”

“I’m not hungry.”

“You should eat.”

“You should eat… look at you. What happened?”

Vanitas shrugged and Riku simply stared through the glass, unhappy with what his heart was doing inside his chest. Certain it was showing on his face, he grunted. “I’ll eat.”

Vanitas nodded and went to tell a nurse that Riku wanted dinner after all.

 

In the cafeteria, they sat quietly until Vanitas broke the silence. “Namine asked me where you had been.”

“What did you tell her?”

“The truth.”

“Which was?”

“You were tired from court and didn’t want to be bothered with us.”

Riku watched yellow eyes flash betrayal. 

“I was tired from sitting in a room acting a certain way just to be looked at and talked about… I didn’t want to do more of the same until bedtime.” Riku groused.  
Without another word, Vanitas took his tray and left him alone. He dumped his uneaten food and retreated to his room.

 

The following day in therapy Riku questioned Dr. Martin about Vanitas’ behavior and if he thought he had somehow caused it. 

“Vanitas has had some issues to arise while you have been busy with your trial. You needn’t worry and you needn’t question him. He may become upset and we have enough hurdles.”

“Why’s he so skinny?”

“Riku… he has some issues he is working through and it has affected his appetite. Please do not concern yourself.”

“I thought he was a sociopath… sociopaths don’t give a fuck.”

“Riku… stop.”

He stood and raked his hands through his hair. “So what happens now?”

“You wait for the date of your sentencing.”

“What do I do until then?”

“You come to therapy, get some exercise… take a class.”

Riku stared blankly and then glanced at the clock. “What about the art therapy?”

 

That night as he lay awake in the dark wondering, of all ridiculous things, if Vanitas had ever eaten anything. Going to his door, he pressed for the guard. “I need to go to infirmary… I’m sick.”

The guard came quickly because he didn’t want a displaced killer waiting for his room to be cleaned. “Hands.”

Riku stuck his hands through the slot and felt the cuffs go on. The door opened and he was led by the elbow out and toward the infirmary. Halfway there, Riku turned to the guard and smiled. The guard smiled nervously. “Is this the part where you escape from my care and show back up later in your cell, not having killed anyone?”

“It sure is… I just want to see my friend so I’ll be back before three a.m. bed check… that last part is completely up in the air however… I mean you just never know.”

The guard nodded and released his cuffs, noticing that he had stopped in a security blind spot so he wouldn’t be seen letting him go. 

 

Vanitas woke to a light shake on his shoulder. “Hey… wake up.”

Yellow eyes seemed to be back lit as his lids opened wide and he sat up, instinctively scooting backward until he hit the wall and then tucking his feet underneath him, raising his arms to guard his face. 

“It’s ok… I brought you something.” Riku smiled without showing his teeth and sat on the side of the bed.

“Riku?”

“Yeah?”

“How did you get in here?”

“I asked nicely.”

“Bullshit you asked nicely.” Vanitas lowered his arms and relaxed on his bed, heart still in his throat. 

“I was worried that you didn’t eat… so I brought you something from the kitchen.” Riku passed him a disposable food tray that was closed with a couple napkins on top.

Taking the box, Vanitas eyed him warily and sat it beside him. “Thank you… have you been all over the hospital tonight?

“Yeah… kind of. I left my cell headed for infirmary and then went down to the kitchen, stole you some food and then… here. I didn’t fight anybody or anything.” 

Vanitas glanced toward his closed door and wondered what lay on the other side. Had his guard actually given a serial killer a pass to enter his room while he was asleep? If so he needed to reassess his feeling of security at HHH. “Do you want to stay here for a while? I mean it's two hours til bed check.”

“I’ll stay if you’ll eat.” Riku looked away so that he wouldn’t see the expression on Vanitas’ face. “So what’s been going on with you that you haven’t been eating?”

“Did the doctor tell you that because he shouldn’t be telling anyone anything about my…”

“No I have eyes. I can see that you’re thinner.”

Vanitas opened the tray and began picking over the food. “I started having some anxiety issues you know… some recurring nightmares and shit.”

“Are you still?” Riku watched him eat the food and nod. “That’s why I freaked out when you woke me up.”

Instead of saying anything more, Riku got up and brought him a cup of water from his bathroom. Instead of returning to his spot on the bedside, he allowed Vanitas to eat in peace. He walked around the room, looking for some semblance of ownership, some sign that someone existed in that space. There was nothing. Tossing the trash and returning to the bedside, Riku watched him clean his hands with the napkins.

“What happens to the stuff you make in art therapy?”

“They sell them and give the proceeds to charity.”

“What charity?” Riku watched him placidly, enjoying the timber of his relaxed voice and the smooth movements of his muscles as he fidgeted with the edge of the sheet.

“I picked a children’s charity… hope or something… for orphans.”

“You’re not as heartless as you sound on paper.” Riku murmured and Vanitas smiled, surprised. “Neither are you.”

Riku winked at him. “Can I kiss you now? I came all the way here and brought a gift and didn’t kill anyone…”  
Vanitas took his face with both hands and kissed him. Riku was shocked and may have even giggled a bit as he pressed him back onto the bed. 

 

Two-forty-five came too soon and Riku couldn’t stop yawning. Vanitas had fallen asleep and stayed in his prone position as Riku crept to the door and pressed the buzzer. The guard who opened wasn’t the guard who had let him in and before he could explain, he was tased and shackled and dragged away. Vanitas slept on.


	11. J

J

“Just choose a color, Riku.” Namine giggled and shook her head. The art therapy class so far was stressing Riku out. Each student was provided with a canvas that had a pre-stenciled picture on it, and were encouraged to use their own creativity to finish it. Some of the patients chose a blank canvas to create their own art but the thought of that was more intimidating to the serial killer than he had thought it would be. He would have been happy with paint-by-numbers… he thought he should probably ask if that was an option… and then he thought that he probably shouldn’t be here to begin with.

“What’s your favorite color?” Namine brushed her long blonde hair over her shoulder (hair that no one saw but her) and passed him a paint brush.

“Black is my favorite color… but I don’t want to paint the whole thing black.” Riku groused as he took the brush and stared thoughtfully at the picture of a bird. 

“Then paint the part you like best black and go from there.” Vanitas spoke from behind him and a small smile appeared on his lips. He turned and raked his eyes up and down Vanitas’ form. He wasn’t sure when it had happened but he was beginning to prefer his warmth to the chill of death and he was enjoying the sensation of arms holding him when for so long the thought of being held kindled a rage in him that had ended many, many lives. 

“I want to see some of your art.” Riku smirked and twirled the empty brush between his fingers.

“After I see your first creation.” Vanitas smiled and began filling his palette. “I’ll help you get started but I want you to paint it the way you want… don’t let the lines limit how you want it to look. The lines are just an idea… you don’t have to follow them or stay inside them if you don’t want to.”

Riku nodded. “What about the big blank spaces?”

“You can do whatever you want there too.”

He put his brush to the canvas and began to familiarize himself with how the texture of the paint worked and Vanitas walked away to help others and then to finally work on his own project. Namine was seated right by Riku and she kept glancing at his canvas. Finally she offered an opinion. “That’s delightfully warm and unusually… happy.”

He stepped back to look at it and then scowled. “It is.”

“That’s good, though.” Namine flipped her hair and giggled, and Riku sighed, wishing that he had never used her for sex… and then he scowled because he didn’t know why he felt that way. After mulling it over briefly, he leaned over to look at her painting and smiled (no teeth) “That looks really nice, Nami, Do they sell your paintings when they sell Vanitas’?”

Sora bit his lip and looked at the brush in his hand, then said sheepishly. “She took off, Riku… but I’ll tell her what you said.”

“Oh, sorry, Sora…. Um, yeah tell her and also… tell her I’m sorry that I won’t be uhhh visiting her anymore.” Riku returned to his painting with a huge feeling of relief and added as an afterthought. “Your painting looks nice too… good job.”

Sora giggled quietly, amused by the effort Riku was making. “I know it’s the same painting… but thank you just the same.”

Riku snorted. “I never know… I mean I didn’t know how self-aware you were.”

“I’ve become more self-aware lately… so I know what you meant when you said to tell Nami…. And Vanitas also dumped Xion… so I guess I’m free to wander about as anyone and not have to worry about having my asshole hijacked. Thanks for that.”

Laughing out loud with very little control, Riku eventually quieted except for the occasional giggle but then Sora turned to him with a blank stare and shook his head slowly, completely unamused. Riku started laughing again and for all the control he exercised in court, he now had none, zero restraint. Sora sighed and never cracked a smile even though others around them had begin to chuckle at the sound of Riku’s laughter. Finally he stood, barking his stool across the floor and hissed “Dude! I’m not even gay.”

Riku wiped tears from his eyes as Sora stomped out of the art room angrily and Vanitas came over to clean up his area… he had a feeling he was done with the session. “I see you broke it off with Namine.”

“It wasn’t a thing you know.” He chuckled and Vanitas smiled and nodded. “I didn’t even know he was straight.”

“It’s got to suck for him… being in here with no females… and now even Roxanne is taken.” Vanitas pondered as he cleaned brushes. “We should rent him a whore or something.”

“We can do that?” Riku perked up but for all the wrong reasons.

“I can, yes. You can, no.” Vanitas corrected and clipped the wings of any dream Riku had of calling whores in and murdering them… for snacks. Smiling at the scowl that was forming, he reached up and brushed a lock of silver away from his eyes. “Don’t pout… you’re done with all of that… remember?”

“Yeah… yeah… new me… blah blah. So what do you think?”

Vanitas stood back and looked at his artwork and smiled. Riku folded his arms across his chest and frowned. “I think it looks happy.”

“So do I.” Vanitas nodded and looked up at stormy aqua eyes. “And the irony isn’t lost on me.”

Riku continued to scowl at his painting of a crow with a pearl in its beak, sitting on a branch overlooking a field of colorful flowers on a sunny day. 

 

Weeks passed and Sora was allowed a conjugal visit from a new friend he had made online and he seemed a bit more together after that. Roxas and Axel had begun holding hands everywhere they went and rumor had it that a certain flamer had started a regimen of testosterone (flamer as in Torch, not flamer as in flamboyant homosexual… Roxas).

Zexion had acquired a flash drive and managed to steal the court-room footage and corrupt the remaining data. Since Riku had been found not guilty, there would be no sentencing as he was already remanded to HHH for the remainder of his life, but he had already escaped and if it ever happened again, well… he might in fact get the death penalty… they would have to prove him sane first. Zexion had read some of the cases (he didn’t have time to read them all) and he thought of them whenever he saw Riku in the hallway unescorted or walking around freely to rec. He was no doctor but he didn’t think letting him mingle with the others nutters and form relationships was a good idea.

Vanitas sat in the bathtub with Riku. He had gotten some bad news but he hadn’t been able to talk about it. All Vanitas had managed to get out of him was that he had another court date. He assumed another body had been found. “Why don’t you just… confess?”

Riku sighed and propped his chin on soft black hair and watched the steam rise from the water. “I don’t even know if I remember them all… I mean when I was really young there were a few that I didn’t stick around to make sure they were dead.”

“Have you told your lawyers that?”

“Yes.”

“Who pays them anyway?”

“I donno… I think they took me on pro bono the first time for the media attention and have built their practice off that.” Riku pressed his nose to Vanitas’ hair and closed his eyes. “Why can’t they just leave me alone. I’m locked up here forever where I can’t hurt anyone else.”

“I think they just want to keep punishing you because the media portrays you as an animal. I guess in a sense they want to make you sorry.” Vanitas turned so that his cheek rested on Riku’s chest.

“Sorry? Hmm…” Riku mulled over the fact that he had felt sorry about very few things in his life. Saying you’re sorry isn’t the same as feeling sorry… he knew that so he tried to remember a time that he had killed a woman and was genuinely sorry he did it. 

Vanitas felt him fidgeting and closed his eyes. A thinking Riku was a volatile thing… it could go either way… and since their conversation up to that point had been about his murders, he assumed it was going to go badly and prepared himself accordingly. 

“I think I was really sorry for a guy I killed once… it was a wrong place/ wrong time deal and he knew as soon as he saw my face that he was going to die. I could see it register, you know… and I wished for a second that I could just let him walk away.” Riku yawned. “But I couldn’t and I didn’t and now he’s sprinkled all over that farm on route nine in Hollow Bastion.”

“Is he one of the locations you gave up when you were arrested?”

“Yeah… felt bad for his folks… not having a body to bury or you now, a place to go to and mourn or what the fuck ever people do at graves.” Riku murmured and his mind made a circuit back to the girl he had killed at the farm… he had seen her at a small store in the shitty little town that morning and she smiled at him. Later that day a little after noon, he saw her walking with an older lady (her mom he guessed) and she saw him… and smiled again. He winked at her and her mother scolded her. She giggled and did as she was told.. and Riku followed them. He watched them get into a truck and head out of town, and as was his habit since he didn’t have a car, he started in that direction and hitchhiked his way a couple miles down route nine… all the while looking at vehicles parked in the yards and carports… searching for the girl in the green dress.  
If he had gone too far, or not found the truck, he would have just continued on until he found another victim… it was all left to chance. His last ride let him out at a crossroads and he started to walk. He had only made it a few hundred feet when the truck he had been looking for slowed to a stop and the window came down. “You need a ride, son?”

“Thanks, yeah.” He smiled at the older gentleman driving and tossed his worldly belongings onto the back of the truck and stepped on the tire to hop aboard. The man pecked the glass and yelled as he pulled back onto the road. “Where ye headed?”

“Tranquil Forest.” Riku called back, even though he had just left from there.

“You got anywhere to stay tonight?”

“No sir but if you have a barn I’d appreciate it if you let me crash there, just for one night and I’ll be out of the way.” Riku was not from the hick town but he was very adaptable and picked up on things faster than normal people… it was part of his drive to adapt… a means to an end. He was a chameleon with a bag of tricks that he carried with him everywhere. Taking a worn ball cap from his bag, he pulled it down to shield his eyes from the afternoon sun and smiled, pleased with himself.   
When the truck stopped at a feed store, he hopped off the back and approached the driver. “Hey if you need any help, I’m good for it. I really appreciate the ride.”  
The man nodded and patted his shoulder. “If you were planning to stay in town for a few days I could use some help on the farm… the young fellow who usually helps out broke his arm last week and left me in a bind.”

“Sure I could hang around and help you out… especially if meals are included.” He smiled winningly as he remembered the girl and her fat ass mother… he bet she could cook… fat ass bitch.

“My wife’s a great cook and I’m sure she’d love to have you join us. I know she’ll be glad for me having some help. Come on, you can start now. I gotta get some feed.”

Turned out they had a spare room that was much more proper than putting the boy out in the barn… and turns out the fat ass was a great cook. It also turned out that he girl in the green dress couldn’t wait to get her hands on a city boy. “You’re not fooling me with that lame story about going to stay with your aunt in Tranquil Forest.” She had said…

Riku was watching the moon out of his window when she crept into his room and took off her robe. She cooed about his long silver hair and kept quiet while he fucked her on her great grandmother’s hand made quilt. She was pretty… in that plain kind of way and he thought he would at least fuck her until he finished the work for her dad… and then… he groaned into the pillow and it was all he could do not to bite her… but he didn’t because sometimes it was better if you waited.

After she left his room, he went to the hallway bathroom to clean himself up and heard the man and woman discussing him.

“We saw him in town and he smiled at her… I just don’t think it's a good idea to have him staying here.”

“I need the help. You can talk to her tomorrow about keeping her drawers on… she’s yours… not my place.”

“Keep your voice down… she might hear.”

Riku made the eek face and crept back to his room.

Three more days of farm work and finding out how depraved the daughter was at night, he was ready to move on. The work was complete and the fat ass made her famous fried chicken for dinner.

Riku thanked them both profusely and promised to write once he was settled. The farmer gave him money for the work he did even though he had said that the food and shelter was enough. The girl was sad that he was leaving but wasn’t allowed to show him how much until the rents went to bed.

Out in the barn (because he knew that there was no quiet way to kill someone and still enjoy it) he let her go through the motions of what she thought he liked and then when she began to tire of him… or worry that she had been gone from her bed too long… or worry that her parents would come looking for her…he watched her face and heard her words… kind of.  
“I need to get back… Daddy is going to come looking for me… we should stop… that's starting to hurt…”  
Riku slipped into a very comfortable routine. Stopping long enough to finish undressing, he noticed that she had started pulling her gown back on. 

“Nope…” he pulled it back off and tossed it aside.

“I need to go back… she looked down at his naked body and tried to smile. “You just never get enough do you?”

“Nope.” He pulled her close again and she said ok as if she had a choice in the matter. He turned her around and pushed her down onto her knees, smiling at the resistance, however weak. Kneeling behind her, he reached for his jeans where he kept a tourniquet that he had stolen from a military surplus store. He slipped it around her neck and she seemed to not even notice at first, she was so into the rest of it… but then she started to panic…

She fought the good fight but it always ended the same way. He came when she started to fight and he came again when she finally stopped breathing. He came when he tasted her blood and again when he opened her abdomen. He fucked her over and over even though her insides were spilling all over the hay, but stopped when her body began to void. He looked down in disgust as all her orifices oozed.

Turning to the doors, he sniffed and scratched his nose, wiping blood on his face, and then walked up to the house, naked, covered in the girls blood, and killed her parents in their sleep. It was quick and quiet, screwdriver to the temple, and then he went back to the barn. Looking down at the thin body of the dead girl who had been kind of plain and kind of pretty and really really slutty, he sighed at the mess she had become. “What the fuck did you eat? Jeesus.”

He carried her body to an old trough that was half full of water and after hosing her off, put her in, made sure all of her entrails were in also, and then climbed in with her. He violated her corpse and laughed quietly when more of her insides floated to the surface. He marveled at the bone that showed through where he had chewed one of her small breasts completely off, and when he finally felt satisfied that she had nothing left to offer him, he left her there and hosed himself off.

The sun was yet to come up as he was walking out of the barn with his bag, when lo and behold, the former farm-hand with the broken arm, mister neighbor boy so and so, hopped out of his pick up and asked where the man was…


	12. K

K

“Killing him was never my intention.” Riku blurted in his own defense as his lawyers held their collective breath. He had been prepared for court again but had been found unfit to stand trial. 

“Just be glad that you don’t have to go through that again Mr. Valentine.”

“I am, I just… feel like I should do something… confess or apologize or some shit.”

Dr. Martin glanced at the two layers as if to say ‘see, I told you he had changed’. They nodded. “How about this, Riku.” The skinny lawyer proposed. “Write a statement and we’ll petition to have it read in court.”

He thought it over and nodded. “One more favor?”

“Yes?” the three chimed.

“Can I get a haircut?” his long hair had been hacked off and now that it was growing back, he realized what a pain in the ass it had been all those years. His doctor chuckled and nodded. “I think we can manage that.”

The remains of a young transvestite that Riku had killed when he was eighteen had been found and even though there were no witnesses who put him in the area, there was DNA evidence present. Riku had stressed about it and had discussed it with Vanitas whom everyone had started to recognize as his significant other, and came to the conclusion that he should admit what he did, confess all he could recall, and try to make a list of his victims.

This was part of that and he was pleased that he didn’t have to go back to court but was afraid that the situation would be misunderstood. He didn’t mean to kill the boy who he thought was a girl until he got him alone, but then it happened and since he was dead… same rules apply. He had said to his lawyers “If you’re hungry and there’s a cheeseburger right there in front of you… I’m just saying.” 

 

One afternoon in rec, it was announced that the Christmas holiday was being celebrated and there would be gifts for everyone. The new people were excited but the people who had spent a few Christmases inside knew the drill. It would be more HHH issue clothes and some candy or fruit, depending on reference and diet. Riku scoffed at the tradition and Vanitas kicked him playfully underneath the board game table where they sat, not playing a board game. “Maybe you’ll get a surprise this year.”

“Pfft.” Riku winked. “You’re getting a surprise.”

“Really?” Vanitas became nervous. He hadn’t expected Riku, a penniless serial killer orphan with no friends to be able to buy him a gift… but then maybe he hadn’t. Maybe his surprise would be something he made in art therapy or something more personal.

“What you get me?” he grinned, showing all of his pristine white teeth.

“If I tell you it won’t be…”

“Yeah yeah… I’ll wait.” Riku scanned the room. “Where’s Roxanne?”

“Torch said she was having seasonal depression and wont some out of her room.” Vanitas mumbled. “Let’s go see her.”

‘She’ll be scared.”

“Not of we’re nice.”

Riku raised his brows. “I’m telling you, she’ll freak out when we show up together.”

“It’ll get her moving… am I right?” Vanitas snorted as the two headed out into the hallway together.

Sora watched them thinking that the staff was far too careless with the resident serial killer.

 

Vanitas pecked on Roxas’ door and when she didn’t answer the two went to her nurse and asked if she had been checked recently. She said that she hadn’t so she headed over and advised the two to remain in the hallway. The moment she opened the door, Riku’s mouth began to water and he glanced at Vanitas who seemed not to notice anything amiss. 

The smell of blood was coppery and sweet and without warning or hesitation, he entered the room and went directly to the source. The nurse was working feverishly to stop the bleeding and looked over her shoulder when she heard a soft moan. Seeing someone happen upon an emergency was usually a blessing … unless that person was a cannibal. The nurse screamed.

Riku reached for her with one hand and covered her mouth with the other. “Get help. I’ll make a tourniquet… I have some experience.”

She ran all over Vanitas getting out of the room as he was headed inside to retrieve Riku. Sliding into the bathroom, he saw him twisting rummaging through the cabinet with his knee sitting on Roxas’ arm. “Vani!”

“Right here.”

“Gimme a pair of underwear.”

Vanitas grabbed some panties and tossed them Riku’s way. He ripped one side and tied the around Roxas’ arm. The blood immediately slowed and he sighed.

Vanitas went back to the door to see what was keeping the other help and he saw the nurse who had run into him on her way out lying face-down in the hallway. She had fainted. “Fuck’s sake.”

Riku looked at the bright red blood and breathed deeply in. Glancing up at the doorway, he recalled a statement he had made recently to his lawyers about a cheeseburger… Puffing out a breath, he closed his eyes and tried to think of something else… anything else. His thumb brushed against the torn panties that were keeping the blonde from bleeding out and he hissed… he had used panties before but they were never around an arm… and they were never applied to keep someone alive. 

 

Vanitas returned steps ahead of the nurses he had summoned and he was running as fast as he could. He wanted to get their first because he was afraid… “Riku!”  
Sliding into the bathroom, he looked into startled aqua eyes. He was panting and still holding Roxas, and there was blood on his lips and chin. “Nurses… nurses…” Vanitas sputtered but Riku seemed to be somewhere else in his head. Grabbing a towel, he reached over the unconscious blonde to wipe Riku’s mouth. “Come on.. they’re here… let me take her… him. Roxas… let me take Roxas.”

He seemed to register the words and released his death grip to allow Vanitas to pull him out of the small bathroom so that the nurses could work. Riku looked up but didn’t move from where he sat on the bloody floor. The nurses whisked Roxas away to the emergency area and Vanitas stepped inside the bathroom with Riku and closed the door. “You ok?”

Riku nodded. “I shouldn’t have tasted it.”

“It’s ok… you didn’t bite her… you just tasted what was already here… right?” he dropped to his knees on the bloody floor in front of Riku. “Right?”

Riku didn’t answer, merely reached for Vanitas. He crawled to him and sat wrapped around him waiting… one day he would snap and do it. One day it wouldn’t matter that he was a guy. Sighing he reached between them and shoved his hand down into Riku’s sweats. Feeling the press of teeth against his skin, he smiled as he squeezed and stroked. 

When maintenance came to clean the mess, they ran the two out of the bathroom and called security. They ran toward Vanitas’ room, slipping in Roxas’ blood, laughing like fiends.

 

Christmas dinner was served two days later and Roxas was there… very pale but present and smiling. He was wearing regular sweats and a hoodie, nothing rolled up, cut-off, or bedazzled and when he had eaten all he could, he approached Riku and Vanitas. “Hi guys… I wanted to thank you for saving my stupid ass.”

“Your ass is not stupid. It’s kinda cute. Sit.” Vanitas chuckled and slid over. Roxas sat and looked dead into Riku’s leering eyes. “Thank you for saving my life.”

“Sorry I bit you.” He was not sorry. Not even a tiny bit.

“Small price to pay for my life.” Roxas smiled and nodded.

“I’m glad you didn’t die.” Riku deadpanned doing his level best not to laugh at the situation. Vanitas could sense the humor even if it was lost on the blonde and he began to smile.

Roxas giggled. “Me too… but you ruined a great pair of panties.”

“Not the first time I’ve heard that.” Riku giggled and Vanitas snorted. Roxas laughed at them both and leaned across the table toward Riku, and kissed his cheek. “Thanks all the same.”

Riku scowled and nodded, the feelings that were welling up inside him completely foreign and scaring the shit out of him. “Excuse me.” He left them there to chat or make fun of him or whatever and went into the bathroom to wash his face and try and figure out why the little twink kissing is cheek made him want to cry.  
Sliding down the wall to sit on the floor and think about it, he wandered off in his head to another time that he had the same feeling… 

At eleven years old, Riku had already killed two children. Both had been ruled accidental deaths but he was very unpopular since being returned to the orphanage. He was constantly fighting and not at all uncommon for him to fight with girls and boys much older than him. Everyone was surprised when he decided to befriend a little red haired girl. She was bullied by some of the other girls because she was tall and skinny… and Riku made it his business to take up for her. He told her that he had been bullied when he was smaller but the older he got the taller and stronger he got and there were far fewer bullies when you started beating kids’ asses.

He followed her around and made sure no one bothered her and carried her books now and then for a kiss. One afternoon, behind the gymnasium, he showed her his small collection of dead animals. She was polite, but thought it was kind of gross. Sensing her disgust, he asked her if she wanted to see his favorite place to sit and read. She was far more enthusiastic about that so he took her hand and led her to a small clearing in the woods. As soon as they sat down he tried to kiss her. She let him but didn’t like it when he tried to kiss more, different, and started to touch her where he shouldn’t.

Riku didn’t understand what he was feeling. I was kind of like when other things happened to him but not exactly. There was a teacher that had been touching his privates for as long as he could remember and she would always say it was dirty and she needed to help him wash. At eleven he knew that was bullshit and she had showed him what he needed to do with it… by using a fake one. He tried but sometimes he couldn’t and she would put her mouth on him and if he still couldn’t, she beat his ass.

When the red haired girl told him to stop he didn’t want to and when she said his hands were dirty, he got mad. That was the first time he choked a girl to death. He sat beside her dead body and thought of trying to bury her… and thought of carrying her to the river… but then…  
He pulled her dress up and took off her underwear. She looked a lot different down there than his teacher… he was glad. Spreading her legs he set about exploring and eventually deciding that he would hide her for later.  
He went back to her corpse over the course of a few days and did whatever he wanted because she couldn’t stop him… but when she started to smell, he carried her to the river and slid her down the bank where he had pushed another girl years before. As he stood there in the weeds looking down at her half-dressed body that was covered in blue and yellow splotches, he felt it in his chest. She had been his friend, his only friend, and he had killed her.

 

Emerging from the restroom, Riku found Roxas and pulled him aside. “Roxas… I need to tell you that I’m sorry I bit you.”

“You told me already.” Roxas squeezed his hand and nodded.

“I said it but I didn’t mean it. I was being an asshole but when you kissed my cheek I realized that you’re my friend and I really am sorry that I took advantage of you like that.” Riku hoped Roxas understood what he was trying to convey because he didn’t know enough about emotions to try and explain a different way.

Roxas smiled and pulled him weakly over for a hug. He hugged him close and heard him sniffle. “Don’t…”

Roxas giggled and sniffled. “Sorry I just… the sincerity in your eyes when you said that was just… was beautiful and I don’t care what people say about you… you’re my friend.”

Riku’s nose burned and his eyes stung but he scowled into the soft blonde hair and blinked it back.

 

After Christmas carols which Riku managed to turn into vile parodies, and gifts were given from the HHH staff, everyone began to disperse to their rooms. Kissing goodnight at doorways was a thing between Roxas and Axel but not this night. This night Axel was going to spend the night in Roxas’ room- a huge step for the couple. Riku hadn’t forgotten that he and Vanitas had agreed to exchange gifts later and now that it was time, he was having lots of second thoughts.

At Vanitas’ door, the tattooed artist turned to him, suddenly apprehensive as well. “There’s no hiding it so… I guess you get to see your gift first.”

Riku smiled and nodded. “Ok… no wait. My gift for you is lame and of you don’t like it… I may have to kill you.”

Vanitas sorted and turned back to open the door. “That’s not funny.”

“I didn’t mean for it to be.” Riku mumbled as he followed him inside and stopped when he saw a frame covered with a bed sheet. “You painted something for me?”

“Not exactly…” Vanitas uncovered the frame and Riku scowled (which Vanitas had come to decipher as thoughtful, not angry). The painting was a large forest scape with beautiful evergreens and a few hardwoods. The ground was covered with a thick blanket of pine needles and the sun shone through the trees like it was late afternoon. Beside one of the trees lay what looked like a scrap of cloth just dropped haphazardly but as he ;looked closer, he saw a bit of skin tone, just enough to make the observer think that there could possibly be a real girl in the flowered dress. Nearby, almost obscured by the cloth was a doll with blue eyes staring at the treetops.

Riku reached out his hand but said nothing. He could smell the pines and feel the damp evening air of Twilight Town… that’s where the scene was from… it was a recreation of one of his crime scenes but it was eerily beautiful. 

Vanitas sat on his chair and watched aqua eyes go over and over the painting. “I visited that place after… and someone had left a doll. I chose the dress from one of her missing photos.”

“It’s beautiful but…”

“I didn’t know you then. I only knew what I heard about you on the news.” Vanitas admitted. “It’s the first painting I did here. When I heard you were coming here, I had them put this in storage because I didn’t want you to see it. I had only been here a few months.”

Riku shook his head. “I remember. You showed up here while I was somewhere else and then I got sent back here. You were quiet but you were always watching. It’s like you understood me in a way that no one else did. I guess that’s why I always wanted to be close to you.”

Vanitas smiled. “So do you want it?”

“Of course. I love it.” Riku chuckled. “I gotta admit though… I bought you something but had to send Dr. Martin on a day trip to get it.”

Vanitas laughed and chewed his lip. “Where is it? I want it now.” 

“Close your eyes… “ Riku giggled and watched the yellow eyes close. Digging into his pocket he extracted a small velvet bag and placed it in his hand. 

Vanitas opened his eyes and clutched the small bag curiously. “Is this… he opened it and looked inside and it was his turn to scowl. “How did you buy this?”

“Rude.” Riku sniffed and Vanitas couldn’t help but smile “Says the serial killer.”

“Does it fit?”

He slipped the ring onto his finger and nodded. “It says… Valentine.” He looked up and Riku shrugged with a smirk. Vanitas looked at it again and then switched fingers, placing on the third finger of his left hand. Riku watched him and feigned shock. “I don’t think I intended to go that far with it.”

Vanitas laughed. “Too late.”

“Til death.” Riku’s eyes met his and he stepped toward him. Vanitas reached out and took his face in his hands. “Til death.”


	13. L

L

“Let it go, Riku.” Vanitas peered across the rec room to where Axel and Roxas were arguing. Reno had come to visit for Christmas and when Axel told him about Roxas’ suicide attempt, he ordered Axel to stay away from the blonde because he would end up being hurt when Roxas offed himself and left him alone. Since saving his life… and biting him, Riku had become protective of the blonde and had even reverted to using his feminine nickname… and Vanitas found it a bit threatening. He kept quiet about it because Riku was Riku and he belonged to him, not the other way around. 

It was New Year’s Day but nothing was new.  
“If he lays a hand on her, I’ll kill him.” Riku growled and then averted his eyes. “I’ll kill him, Vanitas.”

“Ok… you’ll kill him if he hits your little Roxy.” As soon as the mumbled words left his lips he regretted them. Looking up at Riku, eyes wide with shock, Vanitas had no idea what to expect… and if it ended up being the end for him, he was ok with that. 

Riku glared at him and the started to laugh, Axel and Roxas forgotten. “You’re jealous!”

Most of the other patients in the rec room turned their attention to the other couple but Riku seemed not to notice. Vanitas was acutely aware however.

“You’re jealous! Ha!"

“Shut up. Forget it.”

“No…no no. This is the first time anyone has ever been jealous over me and I’m really shocked and … what the hell, Vani?” Riku laughed. “I feel like I should be adjusting my tie or some shit… like Dr. Martin does when someone praises him.” Riku laughed.

Vanitas didn’t try again to silence the laughing idiot. He stood without looking Riku in the eyes and left the rec room. Riku snorted and stood so fast that his chair flipped over, clattering on the floor. “Hey! Vanitas!”

He started toward the doors still laughing but stopped abruptly when he started past Axel and Roxas. Shoes squeaking on the floor, he side-stepped his chase and leaned toward the redhead, pointing a long finger. “I don’t give a fuck if your brother is Jesus Christ, you better give Roxanne whatever she wants. If you make her cry I will fucking end you.”

Axel stared at the finger and said nothing… he simply ran out his very long tongue and licked it… then smacked his lips, and said quietly. “You can try. You bleed too… “

Riku continued to scowl and glanced at Roxas who seemed to be holding his breath. “If you need me…”  
“Just go check on Vanitas… I’m ok.” Roxas smiled; he no longer feared Riku.

Axel stared him down and Riku growled quietly but left them and went to find Vanitas.

Enlisting the help of the staff when he didn’t find Vanitas in either of their rooms, he looked for him but he wasn’t frantic. As he walked with the guard opening doors and calling out, he wondered if he should be frantic? Should he be more upset? Was that a sign that he didn’t care as much as he probably should? Hadn’t Vanitas been waiting to die when they met there?   
Opening the double doors to the wing that held the classrooms, they stopped when they heard a soft thumping sound. Riku forgot that he was being escorted and broke into a run toward the art studio. Shoving the door open, he ran inside, completely oblivious to the fact that the panic he had been concerned about, had showed up with the fury of seven hells. He was suddenly desperate to find Vanitas and stop I’m from hurting himself.

“Vanitas!” he slid into the room and turned on all the lights. He scanned the room and listened for the thumping sound. Turning toward the storage closet, he ran, hurdled the table sending stools and easels flying. Snatching open the door, he froze and shifted gears internally.

Vanitas was crouched in the corner of the closet. He had made himself so small that he was underneath the bottom shelf that held the big bottles of glue and paint. The banging had been him slamming is head against the wall. Riku didn’t think… he got on the floor and reached for him. “Vani… come out.”

The smell of blood filled his nose and clouded his judgement but he kept reminding himself that Vanitas was in pain. “Come… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to laugh or whatever.”

The banging continued. The guard who had followed him touched his shoulder. “We can take him to the infirmary if you pull him out.”

Riku nodded and immediately grabbed Vanitas’ pants and began pulling. The banging stopped and the battle began. Vanitas immediately and without pause kicked Riku in the face and crawled out of his own will, launching himself at Riku. 

Riku had fallen back onto his ass and grabbed his face and before he could recover, Vanitas was on top of him punching his jaw and the hand that covered the other side of his face. 

“Stop!” Riku roared and grabbed his wrists with quick precision. He shook him violently and growled. “Stop. You’ve hurt yourself… I’m taking you to the infirmary.”

“Fffuck you,” Vanitas hissed and as soon as he felt the grip relax, he snatched his wrists away and scurried away from Riku, jumping to his feet and running through the scattered mess of the art studio. As he ran through the doorway, Riku was starting after him until he heard the familiar clicking sound. Stepping into the hallway casually, he looked down at the tattooed body seizing and flopping. “Wow…”

The guard waited to see if Vanitas would try to run again and when he didn’t, he pulled his hands back, cuffed him, and lifted him up. “Walk.”

Riku followed them to the medical wing and was left to watch him while the guard signed him in. “I’m sorry.”  
Vanitas’ face was bloody and swollen and he rolled the one functioning yellow eye toward Riku, then turned to face him.

Riku reached to touch his damaged face feeling his gut curdle at the thought of being so close and not being able to lick the blood oozing from the cut over his eye. “I’m…”

Vanitas spat in his face.

 

Dr. Martin sat looking across his desk at Riku. “I told you last week that he has asked to be retested.”

Riku said nothing.

“I think this is a bad idea.” The doctor was taking notes as always. “He can pass their test if he tries… and he will. I have spoken with him and honestly I don’t get the feeling that he is still angry with you.”

Riku continued to stare stoically.

“It has been two weeks… we aren’t getting anywhere because you refuse to talk about this. You have forced my hand.” The doctor got up and left the room. Riku sat and picked at the stupid sequins and plastic gems that Roxas had bedazzled his arm cast with. The fight that had erupted in the infirmary had been all out war. Vanitas lost an earlobe and half a finger (the ring-bearing one) and Riku had suffered a broken wrist trying to keep himself from falling… he fell anyway. His eye was healing nicely now that the infection was clearing up. When someone sticks their thumb into your eye socket, it can cause infection.

Sighing, he thought of Sora and how batshit he had been when he found out about the fight. He had always been Riku’s back-up. If he fought a guard and needed an assist, he called out to Sora and he would climb over everyone in rec to get into the fray… maybe that’s why he was mad… because he didn’t get any action. Axel had been sent to another wing ‘temporarily’ separating him from the rest of them. They said it was to keep down confrontation but Riku thought his Turk brother probably had him moved and they didn’t say because it might trigger Roxanne.

The sound of the door opening got his attention and he looked up to meet familiar yellow irises. Vanitas was cuffed and shackled with a bandage on his nub and his ear. Riku smirked. Vanitas growled. Dr. Martin walked in and sat. “Alright… say what you need to say to one another because this is the last time you will be in the same room. Let that sink in for a moment.”

Riku looked at Vanitas and thought about never seeing him again. “I’m sorry I laughed at you … I didn’t know that was a trigger or whatever.”

Vanitas shrugged. “It happens.”

“You’re not sorry about my eye? Look at it.” Riku leaned toward him and the artist snorted and shook his head. 

“I’m not sorry… are you sorry for eating my fucking ear and my finger?”

“FFfsss… no.” Riku giggled. “Don’t transfer.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’ll go to prison and someone else will be your boyfriend.” Riku grinned crookedly.

“So lame.” Vanitas chuckled and shook his head. “If I stay we have to find a better way to settle our differences.”

“Like TALKING, right doc?” Riku sassed his therapist who merely ignored him to take more notes.

“No… I just… I don’t want to fight with you anymore.” Vanitas admitted. “If we fight again, I want you to kill me.”

“What if I don’t want to.” Riku groused as he began to feel that familiar burn in his nose again. 

“Then I’ll do it myself.” That made the doctor look up but neither patient seemed to notice. 

Riku nodded. “I can stop you.”

“Not if you don’t know.”

“How will I not now when we’re sharing a room?” Riku smirked.

Vanitas was confused. “Why the hell would we be sharing a room?”

“Because when I found out that you applied to transfer, I applied for a shared room… with you.” Riku snipped and then scowled. “I don’t want you to go away… if anyone is going to be your lover it should be me… and if anyone is going to kill you, it should be me.”

The expression on the once many-times-pierced face was one that Riku was sure he’d seen before but never on this face. It was the look that some of his victims had before they knew his true intentions… the look that let him know for sure that he had them. It was the look of surrender, of trust and it was at that moment that he began to realize the scope of his power over people.  
Vanitas stared and felt his heart melt at the words that summed up his existence for the past few years since he met Riku in person. Those words were the sum of his reason for still being alive... first, because Riku hadn’t yet killed him and second, to be his lover. Never having confessed it even to himself so precisely as Riku just did, he knew when he heard the words that he was where fate would have him… and he was going to stay.

Nodding slightly as he stood cuffed and shackled, he swallowed hard and murmured. “I’d like to withdraw my request for testing and transfer.”

Dr. Martin nodded. “Very well. Now if we can get past this ridiculousness, I will have you moved to a larger double room where you may have a bit of privacy to work out your problems like adults… and not like high school girls.”

Vanitas smirked and Riku snorted but they hadn’t taken their eyes off one another.

“Guard… get them out of here. Thank you.” Dr. Martin put away his notes and watched them be led away. Getting a beep before he could do anything else, he answered the call. “Gone… what do you mean gone? It’s the internet… the footage has to be somewhere. Well hire someone who can find it. I haven’t wasted all these years listening to disgusting confessions that keep me up at night just to retire and live on my pension. Find that footage.”

 

Reno received a memo- See me in my office asap-Tseng

Walking in unannounced was a thing Reno did and it sometimes got him yelled at, occasionally things were hurled in his direction and he had even been shot a couple times for it… but not by Tseng. “What ya got?”

“Take a seat please… this is a delicate matter and has nothing to do with company business.”

Reno waggled his brows as he took a seat and rubbed his hands together in excitement. The last time Tseng had said those words, Reno got a pass for shooting an entire gang of rebels. He was stoked.

“Something has been brought to my attention by our informant at HHH.”

“Go on…”

“The head psychiatrist there is corrupt. He has been embezzling from the foundation and had plans to publish an unauthorized biography of Riku Valentine under a pen name… he also bought rights to the courtroom footage. That part is legal but he bought it on Riku’s behalf… but Riku has no idea that the trial was even filmed.

“That can’t happen.”

“Right, I agree… the informant has managed to acquire the footage but you need to retrieve the data from him and secure it, vault it, bury it. I don’t want to drag my old friend’s name through the mud. He was a good man, a generous and charitable man… he didn’t even know he had a child much less the unfortunate way that he was forced to live… or what he became.” Tseng sighed. “Keep this as quiet as possible. You may warn the doctor that you know but do not let him know that we have the data. This is not a ShinRa job, Reno.”

“I got ya, boss man. I’ll take care of it, yo. Don’t worry. Vincent Valentine’s name will remain spotless.” Reno left the office and headed for the asylum with a spring in his step. He knew that the only thing between him and a bed in HHH was his job as a Turk.


	14. M

M

“My my… Zexion Zaveri, look how you’ve blossomed here in the loving walls of the H cubed.” Reno chuckled as the monochrome hacker entered the visitor’s lounge looking completely mortified. “Ya got what I came for, yo?”

“Yes.” He reached into his pocket and produced a small flash drive. “Is this going to take some time off of my sentence?”

“Just be glad you ain’t in the state pen. Stop cryin and enjoy tha vacay.” Reno tucked the drive safely into his jacket and winked. “You don’t know me, remember… so when I go to visit my brother, act accordingly. I need ta make sure he’s where he’s supposed to be, yo.”

“If you mean ‘away from Roxanne’ then yes, but not before Riku threatened him.” Zexion sighed and plopped onto one of the comfortable chairs. Reno rubbed his chin and sat down facing him. “The serial killer… why would he threaten Axel?”

“There was an incident… it didn’t involve your brother physically but I think Riku is a bit protective of Roxas after the cutting thing and well, he saw them arguing.”

“So Riku was sticking his nose in where it didn’t belong.”

“Basically he sticks his nose in wherever he wants… he’s a fucking… that sounds so lame… he eats people.” Zexion whispered the last part making Reno smile. “He does not fuck with my brother... wait, was the argument before or after I had Axel moved?”

“After. Axel came down to our rec to try and talk to Roxas about what happened. They argued, Riku saw, warned Axel not to make Roxas cry, Vanitas got jealous, a chase ensued, not your brother or Roxas though… just those two nut jobs. I heard that a fight broke out and there were guards involved. Vanitas showed back up at rec missing some minor body parts and Riku with a cast.”

“Damn.” Reno chuckled. “Tseng should make you an honorary Turk, yo.”

“Pass. Turks get shot at. I’m happy working behind a computer.” Zexion chuckled and rubbed his face.

“Alright, thanks fa this. I’m goin up to have a word of prayer with Riku an then I’m visiting with Axel. If Riku knows I’m coming… I’ll be comin for you next.” Reno stood to go and waited until Zexion had gone. He signed out and walked out of the view of the cameras, slipped behind a potted tree and picked up a white coat that one of the staff had stashed for him. Checking to be sure he had his emr, he headed up. 

The new doctor walking past drew no attention as there was an incredibly high rate of turnover at HHH. His red hair was combed back neatly but his ponytail was unseen, tucked neatly under his white coat. Stopping by an empty nurse’s station, he picked up a clipboard and a badge and flipped it around backward so that the visitor label couldn’t be seen. Strolling toward the nurse’s station in Riku’s wing, he pulled some glasses from his pocket and slipped them on before approaching and clearing his throat.

“Yes, doctor?” the nurse looked up briefly and then back to her screen. 

“I have an appointment with Mr. Valentine… I’m his new nutritionist.” Reno smiled and peered over at the computer. ‘He’s late.”

“Oh! I’m so sorry. I’ll get him for you right away.” She hustled away and grabbed a guard before going to his door. Reno was curious so he followed. “If he’s here we can just talk in his room. I am merely going over some of his history since I’m new.”

She smiled and the guard nodded. “I have to accompany all females near Mr. Riku. It’s a security issue and we don’t take undue chances.”

Reno nodded just as the nurse opened the door. Riku was sleeping on his sofa having dropped the remote and had one hand down his pants while Cooking with Ava! Played on mute. Reno rolled his lips in and the nurse didn’t seem a bit put off. “Looks like I’m just in time to talk about food with him,” Reno chuckled.

The nurse didn’t smile. Instead she sighed and stepped back out. “That’s his porn. Good luck doctor.”

The guard went to wake him and Reno noticed that he had his taser in hand and shook him with the other. 

"Mr. Valentine… your nutritionist is here… wake up.”

Riku growled and rubbed his face and shoved his had farther into his pants before opening his eyes. “New doc? Is she pretty?”

The guard smiled and nodded. “She is… and she’s right behind me so get yourself together.”

Riku winced and smiled bitterly. “Can I get three minutes of bathroom time or do you want to watch me?”

“I’m instructed to…”

“No problem.” Riku sat up and extracted his hand from his pants, grabbing a handful of tissue. The guard stepped aside to allow him freedom to move. Riku stepped around the half-wall and proceeded to wash his hands and clean himself and while he busied himself, Reno glanced around the small cell, the front of which was inches thick Plexiglas covered on the inside with curtains. He had been allowed privacy but why?

“Riku will be moved when you come back next month. He’s leaving our wing. Ain’t that right Mr. Valentine?” the guard smiled and Riku nodded as he dried his hands.

“Is that right?” Reno smiled curtly thinking this motherfucker right here is livin better than anyone in tha slums of Midgar and he’s about to get an upgrade? Fuck this psycho piece of shit raping, murdering, cannibal. “Where to?”

Riku stepped around the wall and sat. “The double rooms are all on A wing.”

“That’s also lower security, correct?”

“Not for me and Vanitas. We get to move but we’ll have an armed guard at the door at all times.”

“Worth it?” Reno raised brow and smiled as he sat.

“Totally worth it.” Riku watched him suspiciously and tried to figure out where he knew him from. The guard stepped out but left the door ajar so they could have their q&a in private but he could gain easy access if needed. 

Reno lay his clipboard across his knees and took the glasses off. A light went on in aqua eyes at that moment and they stared at one another in hostile silence. 

“I think ya know why I’m really here.” Reno said in a low voice that sounded nothing like the voice he had used to play doctor.

A wide smile spread across Riku’s face and as the dimple sank in his cheek, he giggled. “You’re here to tell me I better not hurt Torch? Or… are you here to kill me for threatening him?”

“You think you’re cute right now but I if I was here ta kill ya , you’d be dead. What’s up between you and Axel?”

“He dumped Roxanne and it ain’t right.” Riku sniffed.

“Who made you tha boyfriend police?”

Riku snorted. “I just don’t like to see her upset… she’s…”

“A guy. She’s a guy named Roxas who was a whore, and she keeps trying to kill herself and one day she’ll get it right. I don’t want my brother hurt in the fallout.”

Riku mulled over the words and the tone of sincerity and then shrugged. “I don’t see how any of this is any of your business. Turkey.”

“Listen up you sick fuck, I read your file and I know you inside and out. I know you better than you know yourself and the one thing that strikes me is the lengths you will go to, to stay alive… so I’m gonna say this once; stay away from Axel. If he so much as gets a skinned knee because if you, I’m coming for you, you miserable waste of skin.”

Riku grinned. “Challenge accepted, you punk ass bitch.”

Reno bit his lip and glanced to see if the guard was watching. When he turned back to face his ‘patient’ he wasn’t there. Standing quickly and scanning the room, he drew his emr rod and walked to the half-wall that separated the bathroom from the rest of the cell. “He’s not there.” Riku whispered into his ear and leaned against his back.

Reno spun to face him, heart pounding thinking how many ways he could have died in the last two minutes. 

“You’re a freak… but you ain’t bulletproof motherfucker.”

Riku winked at him without backing away and Reno flipped the switch on his weapon. Just before he planted it in Riku’s ribs, someone walked in making a loud clatter. “Here’s the box you wanted for your paltry belongings and… stop fucking with the doctor, Riku. You’re gonna fuck this up and I really am looking forward to moving out of my shitty cell… “

Riku’s brow went up but he didn’t budge and the visitor didn’t seem to care as he went about tossing things into the box. “I know you want real walls instead of curtains, right?” Vanitas completely ignored the two men having a stand-off because one of the men was Riku so he knew who would be backing down.

Riku smirked in Reno’s face and licked his lips before biting his lip. Reno cringed at the gesture and the perfect white teeth that had been imprinted in order to crucify the killer in court years prior. Reaching behind his head slowly and carefully, he extracted the long red ponytail from the white coat and quirked a brow. “I love long hair… you should leave it down for our next session. Touching his jawline with a fingertip, he whispered… if I closed my eyes, it would be almost like fu…”

“Riku… quit fucking around before you get into trouble. We told Dr. Martin we’d behave.” Vanitas groused and walked out of the cell with the box. A flash in wide aqua eyes let Reno know that shit was about to pop off whether he liked it or not. Touching the emr to Riku’s ribs, he hissed. “Don’t make me.”

Riku stepped back and winked. “Wouldn’t dream of it… doc.”

On his way back to the visitor’s lounge, Reno subconsciously counted his digits and tried to recall how much of Vincent Valentine’s dangerous streak had been attributed to the experiments done on him in the labs. Whatever that percentage was, was clearly too high. Shaking it off, he waited for his brother and enjoyed their visit. He didn’t mention Riku so nether did Reno and when he asked about Roxas, Axel confessed to trying to see him but promised to never do it again.

 

Roxas sashayed through the hallway without a care in the world, fellating a sucker that Riku had bought him the day before. A gentle tug on his shirt, made him turn abruptly and then freeze. “You scared me… do your feet even touch the floor?”

Riku smiled and shrugged. “Is that a vampire thing or…”

Roxas smiled coyly and fluttered his lashes. “It was just me being silly. Where are you off to?”

“To see you.”

“You just saw me last night.” Roxas gave him a crocodile grin and pointed at him with his candy.

“I thought maybe you’d want to come back tonight.” He smiled and shoved his hands to his pockets.

“Does Vanitas know about this?”

“It was his idea… well he asked me and I agreed that it was something I would like to do. Look if you don’t want to, its no big deal.” Riku nodded and started to walk away.

“I didn’t say I didn’t want to. After dinner?”

“Yeah… see you then.” Riku walked away whistling, a thing that he had been doing lately that gave everyone the creeps… but he had given up smoking so…

That night after dinner Roxas dressed as Roxanne and skipped over to A wing where she was ogled and glared at by the patients and staff alike. Knocking on the door had a real world feel and she wished so many times that she could be in a lower security area. 

Looking up at their armed guard, she winked and he rolled his eyes.

The door opened and she prissed inside and smiled when Vanitas wrapped her in his arms and snuggled her immediately.

She hadn’t seen Axel in weeks and once Riku and Vani (as she now referred to them) had moved to their new digs, she had become lonely and Riku picked up on it when he saw her in art therapy. Inviting her over to their room had been a real pick-me-up for her so they invited her back. Visits led to sex with Vanitas while Riku watched, blowing Riku while Vanitas watched and many combinations of things with the exception of Riku fucking her. She didn’t say no but he seemed to understand that she wasn’t ready. Her visits had increased in frequency and she had gotten very comfortable with them both.

“Come here and sit on my lap… I have something for you.” Riku smiled and she walked toward him holding Vanitas’ hand. She stopped short to drop her HHH issue pants and tee to reveal pale blue lacy panties and bra. Vanitas thought it was cute how she dressed for Riku even though he worried that it might get her killed one day, by accident of course. Stepping closer to her back, he lifted her and kissed her neck before placing her on Riku’s lap.

“I got you a present but you have to promise to wear it tonight.” Riku smiled, his voice quiet and smooth, calming. Roxanne nodded and he kissed her lightly so as not to smudge her lipstick. Opening the gift bag where she sat, she looked up at him and smiled. “Yes… let me go put these on.”

He lifted her off his lap and slapped her ass, then yanked Vanitas down to kiss him greedily. A tattooed hand snaked down into his pants and he moaned. Riku reciprocated and neither of them heard Roxanne emerge. She watched them appreciatively and when she saw that Riku was beginning to undress Vanitas while they kissed, she assumed that there would be no fashionable turn and presentation of her new lacy things.

Vanitas fucked her with her lacy underthings in place and that seemed to bring out something in Riku that she tried to ignore. The fact wasn’t far from her mind that along with her underthings designed to allow them to stay on during the act, a pair of stockings was included… a pair of stockings much like more than a few pair that Riku had used to murder women. So caught up in what she was doing, the thought fell away like so many flower petals.

Riku lay watching Vanitas’ tattoos move with his muscles, shiny from sweat in the cool room. Roxanne moaned softly and panted as he fucked her on her knees and when she saw him looking, she reached for him. Moving so that he could accommodate her, he stopped touching himself and positioned her on his lap facing him. “Yes?”

She nodded vigorously and wiggled closer, encouraging him to enter her. He hesitated. Vanitas pressed himself against her back and she looked into aqua eyes. “Both?”

Before she could consent, Vanitas was taking her and Riku hissed into her ear. “Deep breath now…”


	15. N

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been so long. Life got in the way temporarily. Sick kids, sick hubby, work, life. Again I apologize. But I'm back now and hopefully we can get this done!! Remeber I own nothing!

N

“Nurse… nurse… can I get some more water?” Roxanne sighed and flipped channels on her television while she waited. Before the nurse could return, her door opened and Vanitas walked in with flowers “How’s our girl?”

“Great, thank you. Do you miss me?”

He smiled. “Of course. Riku sends his love, he’s not allowed in here unless he’s the patient.” Vanitas sat on the edge of the bed. “Does it hurt?”

“Not really.” Roxas looked at his bandaged wrists. “But are you sure they won’t make me go live with the other women?”

Vanitas chuckled and kissed blonde hair. “As long as you keep your pee-pee you get to stay with us.”

“I told them that I tried to kill myself over and over because I wanted to transition and they started me on hormone therapy… they said I may be cranky."

“We’ll never know the difference.” Vanitas chuckled. “I have a class, so I’m gonna go. I have to report back to Riku on how you are and he has an appointment with a nutritionist I think.”

“Ok… hey Vani?”

He took both her hands and kissed them.  
“When I start to look more like a woman… when I get boobs… do you think Riku will kill me?”

Vanitas offered a smile that didn't reach his eyes. “No.” Bending to kiss her pink lips, he turned and left… and yes, that was exactly what he thought would happen.

 

Riku walked into the office that he had been escorted to and sat down, looking around at the bare walls and absence of any decoration… this was a meeting with… the Turkey. Standing to go, he made it as far as the door when he realized he was locked in. Snarling, he went to the window and looked out and then began his search. The desk was empty, the coat closet was as well except for one wooden hanger with a wire hook… and that’s all he needed. Breaking the hanger and wiggling the wire free he started to work on the door handle.

When he finally had the screws out, he pulled the locking mechanism out and opened the door, only to stare into green eyes. “I fucking hate you right now… why did you do that? I haven’t even seen your punk ass brother.”

Reno smirked. “I was ordered to come and follow up with ya but I really didn’t want to… and I got ways of makin my job more enjoyable.”

“Why would the Turks want to check up on me?” Riku scoffed and returned to his chair while Reno went around the desk and sat.

“It’s my job to inform you that… ugh I don’t wanna say this… the words, they make me wanna vomit.”  
Riku stared blankly. “At least if you vomited, I’d be mildly entertained.”

“Your biological father… is dead… so don’t get ya hopes up about some family reunion. He was a Turk…he lived in Midgar for a time and was a great man.”

“Well I’ve lived all over, mostly Destiny Island as a kid and then Twilight Town right before I got busted, so I don’t know any Turk who was a great man. If he was great he wouldn’t have bailed on my mom and me.”

“Your mom was a whore.” Reno snapped and then smiled broadly at the fire that ignited in aqua ice. “But then so was mine, but I digress… your father’s name was Vincent Valentine.”

“Why does it matter now? I’m locked up and he’s dead.” Riku sighed and suddenly seemed exhausted… Reno thought he may have found a feeling in the asshole after all and hit a nerve.

“Because ShinRa Corp Labs would like to do some tests to see how much like ya daddy you are.”

Riku sniffed. “I hate being poked at by doctors… what are they offering?”

“They’re offering to treat you for free and maybe… get you moved from this place.”

“To fucking where? He snorted. “No other place will take me… the only reason I’m not locked in a room alone in this place is because they’re afraid I’ll eat my caregivers and I got tell you Red, you’re looking awfully tasty right now.”

“You don’t wanna eat me. I’m a dude.” Reno grinned and Riku winked “Everyone looked the same with their skin off.

Reno cringed and sat back in his chair. “I did tell my boss that this was a bad idea but his research team wants to study you… I guess they can do it when you’re dead… which won’t be long if you keep killing off the staff here.”

“Do you think I care?”

“I do. I think you care a lot about living because you think you’re fuckin immortal or maybe you’re just like Vince… he always said- I have shit to do and if it gets me killed, so be it.”

Riku stared . “Are we done here?”

“Yeah… you refusing the research?”

“Yes.”

“Alright and just so you know, no one knew Vincent was your father, not even him and if you try to prove it, the data trail has been deleted.”

“Why would I waste my time trying to claim a man who never wanted me to begin with?” Riku stood to go and Reno scowled. “He wasn’t like that.”

“He would just fuck some lady without protection and then blow town… hmmm, I think that’s exactly what kind of man he was.” 

“It wasn’t like that…” Reno started and saw the patient approaching him slowly, like a cat when it’s stalking its prey.

“How do you know, were you there? Were you there when he was fucking my mom and she was panting and screaming and cumming…did you see them rutting like fucking dogs not knowing that they were fucking me by giving me a lifetime of this? OF THIS!” he slapped his forehead and then did it again and began to beat himself in the face. He was growling and his nose was bleeding and Reno was about to panic. 

“Stop that, yo!” He made a grab for the abusive hands and immediately knew it was a mistake. Riku turned his hatred on him.

 

An hour had passed so the guard who had delivered Riku to his nutritionist went to retrieve him and return him to his room. As he approached the doors, he heard the doctor screaming and Riku laughing. The door handle was broken and as he called for backup, he opened the door wide and hit Riku with the tazer. 

Afraid to approach him, even though he was laying still after the jolt, the guard motioned for Reno to get out of the room. “Help is on the way… get out of there while he’s down.”

Reno hit the hallway and kept moving. Seconds later he heard the guard screaming so he ducked into the nurse’s station. “Lock it down… Riku’s snapped.”

An alarm blared and locks clicked. He scanned the cubicle that had a window the length of the counter and then turned to the nurses. “Get down where he can’t see ya… he’ll pass by. I’m going out so lock up behind me and then get on the floor behind the desk.”  
He left them and only took a roll of gauze which he began wrapping around his injured hand, his arm would have to wait…

 

Riku sat before Dr. Martin once again, stoic and strapped to a wheelchair. Watching him briefly, the doctor made notes and then finally spoke. “Mr. Valentine, How are you dealing with solitary confinement?”

Riku said nothing.

“Vanitas has retained the shared room, however… he now shares with Roxas… I’m sorry, Roxanne Strife.” Dr. Martin noted that the silent tapping of the fingers had stopped and the pupils were dilated somewhat. “Mr. Sinclair was officially charged for impersonating a physician but, you may or may not know, that charge is a misdemeanor and he is currently free.”

Riku closed his eyes.

“He has expressed a desire to visit you. Would that be something that you would like?”

Aqua eyes opened, blazing with hatred.

“If you don’t verbally object then I will arrange it.”

Riku rolled his eyes.

“Would you like to say anything before we end the session?”

Riku managed to flip him the bird.

“Very well. I’ll arrange the meeting with Mr. Sinclair. Guard!”

 

Vanitas sat on the bed waiting when Roxanne returned from counseling. “I got approval! I’m moving in!”  
He hugged her close and as happy as he was, he had only one agenda… keep her there until Riku returned. Roxanne was sweet and a fun pastime, but Riku was Riku and Vanitas hoped his six months in solitary flew by. He received no news of what they were doing with Riku. He assumed his therapy as well as his meds had been upped. He received no news about how the nutritionist faired that Riku had attacked or of the fact that he wasn’t even a nutritionist to begin with.  
That day had been total chaos. He saw him briefly before he was rolled away, unconscious. His face had been beaten and he had blood on his mouth. He hadn’t heard if there were any casualties unless the nutritionist died because he hadn’t seen him since. Vanitas kept quiet and went to his art therapy, carried on with Roxanne and even went with her to therapy for her new treatments.

The two went to rec on their old wing so that Roxanne could say goodbye. Sora was there and Zexion, and the shuffler was in the corner, but other than them, all the faces were new. Vanitas carried her things and chuckled when she cried after getting hugs from her favorite nurse’s and guards. He almost felt guilty for wanting her for Riku but when he thought of how long it had been since the female guard… he could only imagine how miserable he must be… surrounded only by men.

 

Riku was released into his solitary cell. The walls and floor of the ten by ten room were padded, there was no furniture, not even a bed, and the toilet was encased in a rubber based material that jutted out from the wall. He slept on the floor opposite the toilet and when it was time for meals, he received his tray through a security drawer. He was denied human contact except for those times he needed to be cuffed and moved… and extensive precautions were taken. He received his meds the same way he got his meals and after blatantly flushing them three times in one day, Dr. Martin came down and explained that each time he skipped his meds, his time would start over… so he could flush all he liked.

He took his meds.

Vanitas had tried to sneak down to see him once but was verbally reprimanded and sent back to his room. He hadn’t even made it past the first set of guards and there were no other attempts.

Days passed like years for Riku and one morning after breakfast meds, his guard came back, knocked twice and barked. “Hands.”

He stepped to the door and put his hands through the slot to be cuffed. Hands secure he heard the slide of the lower slot and shackles secured his feet. He had become used to the routine and never complained because it meant time outside the cell. He never complained… he never said anything.

The door opened and his guard looked him over and then focused on his forehead (they had been instructed not to make eye contact). “You have a visitor in the office down here so you can walk or I can get the chair. Want the chair?”

Riku shook his head and felt guard’s hand grip his elbow. “This way… no rush.”

He shuffled along in the shackles and immediately thought of the shuffler who always sat in the corner of rec. He never spoke and rarely even raised his head… Riku didn’t even know his name. Arriving at the room with a door labelled “Conference” he entered and immediately heard a familiar voice. “Nice digs… ya score that for tryin ta eat me?”

Aqua eyes fixed on green and he said nothing.

“I heard ya haven’t said a word since… so what gives?” Reno smirked. He was reclined in a chair with his feet propped on the long table and his hands folded across his lap. Riku squin6ed at the black gloves he wore and wondered if the Turk had paid the guard to look away while he killed him, or at least choked him out. He felt a gentle nudge on his arm and took a seat.


	16. O

O

“Oh how the mighty have fallen.” Reno chuckled as he stood and rounded the table to sit closer to Riku… flaunting his fearlessness. Aqua eyes tracked his movements and he turned slightly, breathing in deeply,  
Reno smirked. “Are you smelling me right now? Man, I must have tasted great! Ha!”

Riku growled and the guard kicked his chair, effectively silencing him and the redhead smiled. “I think we’ll be ok … if ya wanna leave us for a few minutes. I have some classified information to share with the patient... ShinRa business, yo.”

“If I walk out that door and you die, it’s on me.” The guard held up a hand. “The only way I can leave him alone with you os of he’s secured to a chair.”  
Let’s make that happen, then.” Reno checked his watch and when he stood to serve himself some coffee, Riku noticed the strap of a gun holster underneath his jacket. “Coffee, nemesis?”

Riku scowled and the guard used his walkie to call for Riku’s wheelchair. When it arrived, the nurse pushing it was a female. She stepped inside the room and for an instant, aqua eyes softened as he watched her park the chair by his side. She smiled down at him and reached to pat him but was blocked by the guard. “Sorry… no contact.”

“But.” She began to protest and Riku kept his eyes on her, pleading and miserable.

“But nothing. Rules are in place for a reason… to save lives. I know you’re just filling in for the day but do me favor and follow the rules.” The guard nagged and stood between the nurse whose name tag read Kairi.   
“Sorry, I just… think it’s cruel that’s all.” She continued to look into his eyes and hers were soon glistening with unshed tears. The guard turned his back to her and began transferring Riku from the chair to the wheelchair and as he did, he gave no resistance.  
Sitting comfortably while the guard shackled his feet first, he watched Kairi watch him until the guard barked. “You may go now, Kairi.”

She nodded and looked one last time at Riku and he turned his face to watch her go and opened his mouth as if he wanted to speak… but didn’t. The look on her face was total devastation as she hurried out the door before allowing herself to sob. The guard shook his head and mumbled. “Women.” And nervously unlocked the handcuffs so that he could affix his wrists to the arms of the wheelchair.

When the guard was finished and Riku was secure, he rolled him to the table and stepped out, speaking over his shoulder. “If you need me, I’ll be in the hallway. When you’re done, just leave him here. Don’t attempt to move him.”

Reno wiggled his black gloved hands. “Woooooo… scary man.”

Riku stared blankly and then smirked, but said nothing.  
“so… now that it’s just me and you… I saw ya eyeing that little nurse. Ha she been sneaking down here ta visit ya?”

Riku made a disgusted face.

“But that look… she looked so upset. She may try ta come back.”

Riku’s face contorted into a mask of pure evil and he began to giggle. Reno’s blood ran cold as he realized he had just witness the beginning of the end for many girls and women. “You twisted fuck… I can’t believe ya Valentine’s kid.”

Riku stared into green eyes that were half-lidded but hyper-focused. “How is your hand?”

“Fine. How did it taste?”

“Like cigarettes and sweat… disgusting… but your blood, so sweet.”

Reno twitched and shifted in his seat. “A little birdie told me that ya never gonna see ya little blondie again… is that true?”

Riku fell silent and wondered what the fuck he was talking about. He lived in a fucking vacuum and had no idea what went on in the rest of the hospital. 

Wondering if something was happening to Roxanne or she was being released, he wanted to ask… but he wouldn’t give the redhead the satisfaction. 

“I hear she’s livin it up with your old sweetheart in your room… and she’s becoming a she… and it’s a beautiful thing. Growing her hair… wearing make-up… even starting t fill up those bras you like for her ta wear.”

“Did you just come here to taunt me?” Riku snapped. “I could be back in my room jerking off to the memory of the taste of your…” he paused and smiled. “How’s your arm… could I possibly see…?”

Reno laughed and shook his head. “No way am I showing yo the scar that you left on me. You fucking asshole. I came here to get your signature on some documents waiving your right to anything of Vince’s. Actually… I came here as a technicality because I signed ya name ta everything already. Gotta keep things believable, cover all tha bases yo.”

“Just out of curiosity, and not that it matters since I’ll never be free, but what did daddy have that drove you to such lengths to acquire?” Riku smirked and drummed his fingers on the armrest of the wheelchair.  
Reno stared at him oddly because at that moment, he sounded exactly like Rufus ShinRa, pitch and inflection. Again he twitched and shifted… something wasn’t right. “Just some money yo and stock in tha company… my time’s up here so I’ll be seein ya… or not, definitely not.” Reno checked his pockets, downed his coffee and looked once again into soulless aqua eyes. “Good luck Riku Valentine.”

Riku didn’t speak, only turned his eyes to the wall and waited to be left alone.

As Reno left HHH he thought of the empty eyes and wondered how different his life might have been had he been raised by his father… of course he would have ended up orphaned anyway when Cloud killed Vincent but he would have been cared for by Yuffie of Shelke… someone who cared for Vincent. “Oooh that would be bad.” He hissed to himself as he drove away thinking what might happen of word ever got out that Vincent had a son. Even tough he was a serial killer, he had a feeling that one of those bleeding heart females would try and save Riku. “Nightmare.” Glancing down at the envelope of official documents that he had forged, he sighed, glad that it was over. Riku Valentine could rot in HHH forgotten by those who knew him and completely undiscovered by those who did not.

 

Riku lay on his floor that night after lights out and thought of his past transgressions… and giggled. Having so much quiet time without distraction, he had made a mental list of his victims, some he could only identify by a characteristic that stuck out because he couldn’t recall their names, and he knew that all them hadn’t been found. Closing his eyes, he thought of the last time he had had an undisturbed meal of human flesh and sighed. It had been a nurse, long before the female guard… and the only disturbance had been stopping to vomit because he had gorged himself.   
He felt the heat pooling in his groin as he recalled eating her soft breasts, the bitter taste if the perfume she had sprayed on her skin before she came to visit him, the way she moaned when he fucked her and the way she struggled when he wrapped his hands around her throat. His breaths became more shallow as he squeezed his cock and thought of the slick inside of her… and how she squeezed him when she was gasping for breath. He groaned quietly as he came but wasn’t satisfied… wouldn’t be satisfied with just a memory. 

 

The next week, Kairi received a temporary reassignment to solitary. It seems that the regular nurse had received a nasty bite that was infected, and would be out for recovery… and counseling. She grabbed her things and reported to the solitary confinement area of HHH which was located in the basement of the main building. Taking an empty locker, she pulled her red hair back from her face, checked her make-up and reported to the duty desk.

“Not you…” the guard groused. “let’s get one thing understood, red. He’s dangerous. I don’t care how sweet and sad he looks, he will eat you. Not in a sexy way either. He will kill you … and then he will eat you. So do we understand each other?”

“Yes, Pence… I get it. He will eat me.” She sassed and looked over the schedule for the day. “Oh… says here he gets a shower at ten a.m. what fresh hell is that? Who gets a shower in the middle of the morning?”

“Someone who eats people Kairi, damn.” Pence grumbled. “That’s not your concern anyway. No chicks allowed near him when he’s outside his cell.”

“So you get to give him a shower?’ she giggled.

“I walk him to the shower, yes. I leave him cuffed and shackled with a sponge that has soap inside it. He gets fifteen minutes to wash or jerk off or whatever he wants to do.” 

“I don’t see another shower scheduled for the rest of the week…”

“They haven’t sent down the order for his new rotation yet.”

“I don’t get it.” She began checking schedules fro other patients while hey chatted.

“He has to be alone. We have to coordinate with everyone else in this building to make sure no one happens to show up while he’s… what do yo care?”

“Just curious.” She walked away, calling back. “Going to pharmacy… right back.”

Pence puffed out a breath and looked down the hallway that led to Riku’s cell. “There goes your next meal, buddy.”

Kairi returned and went about passing out breakfast meds. When she got to Riku’s cell, she made sure no one was watching and she scribbled on the small white cup that held his pills. Placing it into the drawer, she pushed it through and waited.

Inside, Riku picked up the cup of meds and dumped them into hos mouth. As he swallowed he noticed the writing on the cup. “Hi” He smirked and went to the small window that was embedded in his door. It was about three inches by six inches, just wide enough for the guards to peer inside and make sure he wasn’t dead or covered in shit. Looking out he saw no one but when he looed down, he saw the red hair and pecked on the glass. She jumped and looked up smiling. 

He put his fingers in front of his eyes and wiggled them in a tiny wave and she blushed and covered her smile but then waved back. He smiled but she couldn’t see it so Riku stood on his toes to let her see his sweet smiled through the window. When he looked back out she seemed to be giggling and that made him chuckle. His mouth began to water and he chewed his lip as he squeezed the small paper cup in his hand. 

She turned her med cart around and started to walk away, looking back only once. No sooner had she gone from his limited sight, Pence walked by in the other direction. Riku growled quietly and backed away from the door. Looking at the cup again, he tore it into small pieces and ate it knowing that if it was found, there would be no more Kairi. He knew they cleaned his cell while he showered but after the second incident of requiring extended shower time, they stopped telling him when he was scheduled for shower.

When he was put into solitary he had a shower three times a week. After breaking one guard’s arm who touched him while he was naked, his physical contact was limited to physical exams by doctors. After a week of rushed showers and avoidance by staff, they opened his cell one evening to find that he had smeared shit on the walls and floor as well as himself. He laughed hysterically when they wrapped him in a sheet to haul him away and enjoyed his long shower while his cell was cleaned and disinfected.

Then suddenly his showers were moved to mid-morning and he never knew when they were coming. Sometimes he got a shower every three days but sometimes it was a week. He thought maybe they forgot or just didn’t want to deal with him… but now he had Kairi. When he saw her in the conference room on the day the menace came calling, he wanted her. She was young and looked on him with innocence and pity, so he figured that she would be back… he hadn’t expected it to be so soon though. He was absolutely giddy.

After his breakfast, Pence came and knocked twice. “Hands!”

Kairi watched him open the slots to put on the cuffs and shackles and wondered of she would be able to do it without a key… probably not. Going about her work and trying to look unconcerned, she glanced up when she heard the wheelchair approaching. Riku was staring at her but so was Pence so she nodded and smiled politely. Pence rolled his eyes and Riku smiled brightly in return, effectively melting her heart.

As they approached the shower, Pence cleared hos throat. “You know, Mr. V, it’s none of my business but I seen the way Kairi and yo have been looking t each other and before yo go getting attached, just a head’s up, she’s only here temporarily.”

“Why?” Riku’s voice startled the guard to the point that he stutter-stepped and gasped.

Chuckling nervously at himself, he explained about the other nurse that Riku had bitten for touching his face. She planned to come back when she was better so Riku voiced that he should probably have bitten her somewhere more strategically, somewhere that would have discouraged her from returning… or killed her, either would have been better than this. He sighed and shrugged and Pence chuckled. “Right?”

Rolling him into the shower, he turned the water on and helped him undress so that at no time was he free of all of his shackles. Bottoms frightened Pence the most because all it would take would be one good kick and he could be off and running… but he hadn’t done it yet, so…one day at a time. Standing at the doorway to the communal shower that was empty save for the cannibal, Pence busied himself playing games on his phone. He knew what Riku did when he was done bathing and he didn’t care to watch. He had watched the first time and he felt really gay after.

Kairi waited while maintenance washed down the cell with disinfectant and searched for contraband. Finding nothing, they made sure that the toilet was in good working order and clean, and then secured the covering over it so that the patient couldn’t hurt himself. When they were done and gone, she stepped inside and immediately became claustrophobic. She had no idea how he stood it, day in and day out without so much as a magazine to look at. Her heart broke for him and she shook her head and tried to think of the families of his victims.

After her first encounter with him she had done some light research, thinking that the stories she heard at work were just sensationalized tales to scare the nurses. The reality was so much worse… but he looked so very sad. Deciding that even a serial killer deserved a friend, she set about becoming his… friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the delay in posting. Life happened and got in the way. I moved and actually an still moving, but I knew I had to post so that everyone would know that this story hasn't been abandoned. Hope you enjoy.


	17. P

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still don't own anything. Sorry it's taking so long to post.

P

“Pence! Pence!” Kairi shrieked as she looked through the window at lunch. Pence came running. “What are you doin?”

“He’s having a seizure!”

Pence looked through the small glass. “He is not.”

“How do you know?”

“Because he just isn’t.” he grumbled “Take the rest of the trays. He’ll be done seizing by then.”

She scowled wondering how he could be so flippant about another human being’s malady. She could see him lying with his back to the door and he was jerking fitfully. Looking back at Pence’s amused face, she sniffed and went about delivering the other lunches.

When she came back to Riku’s cell, she didn’t bother to look inside. After giving it some thought, she considered the possibility that he could have been… doing something else. Placing his food tray into the drawer, she pushed it through. Waiting to hear the tray be removed, she glanced at the slots that Pence opened to cuff and shackle him. There was no lock, only a small tab to hook your finger in and slide it open. Her heart leapt in her chest.  
She looked up at the window to see aqua eyes looking down at her. They were slightly curved and she imagined him smiling. Smiling at him, she checked for Pence and the pointed to the slot. He looked confused for a moment but then nodded vigorously. She squatted down and slid the slot open. Inside the cell, he was on his knees, anxiously awaiting contact of any kind.

As it opened she checked for Pence once more and then turned to meet the desperate aqua gaze. “Hi.” She whispered with a smile.

“Hi.” He whispered back and poked the fingertips of one hand through the slot by his face. She instantly covered his fingers with her hand and sniffled when he pressed his head to the door and closed his eyes. “I’m sorry they treat you this way.” She hissed, trying not to cry.

“It’s not your apology to make… I’m not a good person. I’ve done terrible things.”

“But they treat you like an animal.” She let out a quiet sob.

“Shhhh.” Riku tugged her hand gently and when he had it partway inside his cell, he kissed it. “Don’t cry. I’ve been making girls cry for as long as I remember… and I don’t want to do that anymore.”

Brushing his wet cheek against her soft skin, he kissed her fingers again before releasing her. She pulled her hand away and wiped her eyes. “I don’t want to get you into trouble. If Pence sees us talking…”

“I know… Kairi?” Riku looked at her pleadingly. “Pence said that you’re only temporary… could I have something of yours to keep until I see you again?”

“I don’t know what I could give you that they won’t find when the clean your cell… what could you hide from them?”

He shook his head sadly. “Nothing.”

“I’ll be here for another week and we can talk every day unless we get caught.” She smiled and watched his smile blossom again as well. He nodded and stuck his fingers back out the slot, this time further, and she wove their fingers together and kissed his hand in return. His smile faded, replaced by his usual scowl. “What did I do? I’m sorry.”

“You didn’t do anything.” He smiled. “I was just thinking… you didn’t do anything wrong. It was nice, what you did. Thank you.”

“I should go… maybe we can talk later?” she looked at him hopefully and he nodded, wiping the crocodile tears from his eyes. He watched her close the slot in the door and when it clicked, he licked his hand everywhere that she had touched it and then bit just hard enough to draw blood, sucking it down greedily. 

 

Vanitas sat staring off into oblivion while Roxanne chatted away with Demyx. The young blonde had started calling her mom and that was all well with Vanitas but he declined the moniker of dad. Roxanne was currently giving him a hand massage while she explained all the fashion faux pas of their hideous HHH fashion. The tattooed artist’s mind wandered off and eventually his person followed. He walked the halls with his hands shoved into his hoodie pocket and looked out the windows that lined the outer hallways of the institution.

As he was about to turn right and make a giant loop, he heard a familiar screech and howl. Torch he thought and smiled. The clamor of guards and nurses let him know that not a lot had changed with the redhead and he decided to make a surprise visit to their old wing; the place where they all met- him and Roxas, Axel, Sora, and Riku. He smiled when he thought of the fights they used to stir up before everyone was a medicated zombie, before the guards learned their tricks, before Torch was moved and Riku was locked away.

Sighing, he pushed open the door to the rec room to find very few familiar faces. Sora was there but rumor had it that he was due out soon. He had done so well after becoming self aware that he was actually offered a short stint at a halfway house, but turned it down, opting to remain with his friends until his official release.

A new Roxanne is on the block he thought as he watched a bleach-blonde priss by with half her ass showing. He snorted and looked around at all the new faces but stopped when he saw something he had never seen before. Zexion… the monochrome guy who was afraid of Riku (not that that made him unique) was sitting in the corner talking to the shuffler. Quirking a brow at the odd couple, he went about his short tour and then headed out.

“Vanitas!” Sora jogged over and gave him a clumsy hug. “It’s good to see you.”

“I heard you’re on your way out.”

“Yeah… three weeks.” Sora beamed and Vanitas smiled kindly, all the while remembering the times he had reamed his ass as Xion. “Good… say Riku will be out by then. Maybe you’ll get to say goodbye.”

“Yeahhh.” Sora looked like he was in physical pain and Vanitas chuckled, assuming Sora was recalling the times Riku had reamed his ass as Namine. “Good times.”

Vanitas laughed out loud and clapped him on the shoulder. “You should come visit since I know you have clearance.”  
“I will.” Sora beamed and they said their goodbyes.

 

Dinner time brought another visit from Kairi and Riku was waiting. Pence had been called to another floor so he knew they would have more time to chat. She sat on the floor outside his door and opened both slots. They looked at one another through the hand slot and held hands through the lower slot where his ankles were shackled. He listened to her talk about things that she liked to do and he mentally made notes and built a set of bogus tales and stories to interest her. She was enamored and felt like it was pure serendipity that she had been sent to sub for the absent nurse. He agreed.  
After a week of hand-holding and a little trash-talking, she was intent on getting a kiss before she was sent back to her regular floor. They had joked about kissing through the slot but then laughed it off because of how ridiculous it sounded and would probably look as well.

By the event of his next shower, they had engineered a plan for a secret kiss. Pence went to his cell and pecked, called for his hands and then went through the usual motions. All necessary safeties were in place as he wheeled him away toward the shower. He tried not to smiled when he heard Kairi running toward them calling out. “Pence!”

“Where’s the fire, woman?” Pence looked at her with a lazy scowl. She was out of breath and pointing back toward the corridor. “225… it’s bad. I don’t think he’s breathing.”

Pence woke up. “Stay here with him until I get back. He can’t hurt you just… stay away from his face.”

As soon as Pence was gone down the hallway, she bent and kissed slightly parted lips. Placing her hand on his throat while they kissed, she could feel his pulse racing. “Riku…” she whispered against his lips and kissed him again, deeper and more desperately than she had intended. He retuned the kisses greedily and hissed her name, his cheeks wet with tears at the gentle touches. 

“Don’t cry… he’s coming back.” She whispered and used her hand to wipe his cheeks dry. 

Riku kept his head down and Pence returned to give the all-clear for 225 and took Riku on to the shower, business as usual.

With that excuse used up, they resorted to kissing through the slot and planning another interlude, the next one possibly longer.

 

Riku’s therapy was scheduled and Kairi volunteered to take him. Pence told her that whenever she was ready there was a bed there with her name on it because she was as crazy as the rest of them. She laughed it off and he allowed it. He had to admit since Kairi had been on the sc floor, Riku had a better temperament all around, and he reported as much to Dr. Martin. 

On the way to therapy, Kairi spoke softly. “We’re going to make a quick stop in this supply closet right here.”

Riku giggled quietly and looked for anyone else on the hallway. It was deserted. Wheeling his chair inside, he expected something preliminary like tits or maybe some head because his hands were fastened to the chair, and he wasn’t disappointed. Once the door was closed she unzipped the dress she was wearing and stripped it to her waist. Taking off her bra as she got on her knees, he began to appreciate the swift precision of the nurse’s hands. 

 

Arriving at Dr. Martin’s door, she straightened her dress and bento look at his sweet smile. “Is my face clean?”  
“Yes” he leaned forward and kissed her nose. “Do I look like I just got head in the supply closet?”

“No.” she giggled and kissed his lips. “Well, maybe a little.”

She rolled him into the office and left him there. He answered questions and even submitted to some tests before being returned to his cell. Once inside for the evening and probably the next few evenings as he had no appointments, he settled into his routine of biting himself, jerking off, and sleeping.

The next morning Kairi informed him that his old nurse was returning and she would be sent back to her previous area. He knew it was coming but he felt that he was quitting in the middle of the game. There had to be a way…  
Their final chance to be alone came when she volunteered to take him to therapy the following week. She had a surprise for him but she wouldn’t hint at what it was. Wheeling him the long way round by the old laundry chutes, she whipped his chair into a room with a large table and some long forgotten laundry carts. “Surprise…” she smiled and he looked around and smiled.  
“Nice… we won’t knock and mops down in here.”

“That’s not all.” She began to strip and he watched greedily, waiting to feel her warm mouth on him. She undressed completely this time and reached for his hands that were clinched into tights fists. She seemed not even to notice his heavy breathing as she reached into her discarded dress, presenting her ass to him in the process. “Surprise again…”  
She turned to see his eyes glazed over and thought it was too cute that he was so excited. The key she held caught his eye and a broad smile spread across his lips. Dimple sinking in his cheek, white teeth wet and waiting. The cuffs were released and she freed his ankles quickly, checking her watch once more. “Twenty minutes, ok.”

He nodded and stood from the chair, ending any control she had over the situation. She was already wet when he crawled on top of her on the table and she didn’t want him to stop when he came so he didn’t. She covered her mouth when he bit her breasts and squeezed him with her thighs when he lifted her off the table only to sit and pull her down onto him harder. He applauded her skill at keeping quiet and then glanced at her watch, panting, and shoved her back on the table spreading her legs wide and covering her with his mouth. She bit her hand until it ached and when she came again she pulled his hair and ground onto his face.

 

Checking his watch again, Dr. Martin opened his door to find Riku strapped into his wheelchair, disheveled and slumped sideways. “You were abandoned?”

Riku chuckled. “Nurse had a bathroom emergency.”

“I see… well lets get you inside and get started.”

Inside, he received the results of the tests he had been given. The tests were processed by ShinRa and it seems that much of his psychoses was in fact inherited from his father. The events that happened during his formative years skewed the path that he may have taken, sending him down the road to ruin and ultimately landing him at HHH for the rest of his life. “Well” he said to his doctor “Now at least I know that I would have been fucked up either way, it’s a just a matter of degrees… and I’m not sorry that I killed them. (his abusers)”

Sending him back to his cell in solitary, the doctor decided that for Riku’s last few weeks of confinement, he would track his progress since receiving the news and, depending on his progress, may release him back to his original wing, as his double room was now occupied by another. 

Passing Kairi in the hallway, Riku smiled and winked and she giggled and scurried away. He wondered how he would see her when his old nurse returned and decided that there was no point in stressing about it. She had a taste of it so she would be back wherever he ended up. He was sure of it. And when he finally got released back to gen pop, he was going to have an intimate meeting with a little blonde room-stealing tranny. He snorted and Pence raised a brow but said nothing as he shuffled him back into his cell and locked the door.


	18. Q

Q

“Quiet.” Riku hissed, more to himself than to her because he currently had his hand clamped over her mouth. Kairi had managed another trip by the laundry room with Riku and they had an entire hour thanks to a bungled schedule. She had been super excited to have him alone for that long but forty-five minutes later she was bleeding and crying. Riku fucked her savagely and had to keep reminding himself not to kill her. He had literally begun whispering to himself and incidentally, hearing his words is what triggered her fear.

She tried to wiggle free but he was just too big. He squeezed her face each time she attempted to put her arms around him like she had during their first interlude but he was having none of it and demanded that she lie still. Removing his hand from her mouth only to slip it around her throat he whimpered with quiet desperation and murmured “Not yet not yet.”

She started to claw at his hand and the sting of her nails make him giggle quietly. Releasing her slowly, he bent and hissed into her ear “Quiet… ok? I’m not going to hurt you anymore… I’m sorry, ok?”

She nodded weakly and he finished quickly, hopping off the table, disgusted with himself but not understanding why. She dressed quietly and watched him pace once he was back in his HHH issue scrubs (he wasn’t allowed sweats anymore). “Are you ok?”

“What’s wrong with me?” he rubbed his face.

“You’re stressed out… that’s all.” She feathered his hair and shrugged as if it was hopeless and he watched her curiously. “You’re not scared of me?”

“I was for a second but then I realized that you were in control… its fine. I loved it. I’ll hate you tomorrow when I wake up but it was worth it.”

He nodded and sat so she could fix him into his wheelchair again and deliver him to therapy.

 

Vanitas watched Roxy dance around the room with her newly acquired ipod (she hadn’t earned her phone rights yet), and wondered if that was how it felt to be married… bored… to the point of insanity… ha. Standing to stretch he was beset by the blonde and showered with kisses. “Thank you Vani!”

“You’re welcome, baby.” He kissed her and gave her a pat on the ass. “I’m going over to paint for a while.” Pausing he looked at her suspiciously and then smirked. “You couldn’t wait to have tits to put in your bras and now you have them… where’s your bra?”  
She shrieked and laughed and ran to their shared dresser and he left her there rummaging through lacy things.   
On his way to the classroom hall, he noticed Zexion walking slowly alongside the shuffler. They seemed to be deep in quiet conversation and it was at that moment that Vanitas realized how tall the older man was. His sweats hung on him like he was very thin and he thought he saw a hint of a tattoo as he raised his hand to point a bony finger at the window. Zexion looked out and nodded, carrying on with their talk. 

In the art room, nerd and shuffler forgotten, Vanitas retrieved one of his unfinished works from the storage closet and set up his supplies. As he sat on his favorite stool, he had a flashback from his fight with Riku… and his mind once again paralyzed him until it was done shredding him. 

He gasped for breath when he was finally able to pull himself back to the present and reached to touch his ear… expecting to find blood. He panted through the panic attack that followed and ended up sitting on the floor underneath the table. Trying to get his shit together before someone found him like that just added to his anxiety and he had another panic attack, this time losing consciousness.

He woke in the dark to the sound of someone whistling. Sitting up slowly, he still managed to bang his head because he had forgotten that he was underneath the table in the art room. The whistling stopped and he sat very still, ears straining for a sound. 

The whistling resumed and his eyes began to focus in the dark. Curious as to why he heard no footsteps, his question was answered when he made out the vague shape of bare feet pacing around the table. “Riku.” He whispered and saw the feet turn to walk in another direction. Assuming he wasn’t loud enough, he moved to the edge of the table and peeked over.  
There, walking around in the dark without so much as a handcuff, was Riku. His shadow self seemed to be the same as it had been almost six months earlier. He seemed a bit more muscular if that was possible and Vanitas began to wonder of this was somehow engineered by God… him fainting there in the very room where Riku decided to come to during his midnight stroll. Scooting fully out into the path, he sat, his legs too weak to hold him as his mind raced and he wondered if this would be his last night.

Riku paced slowly in the dark, knowing that he needed to get back before bed check but glad to be back where he and Vanitas had the best and worst day of their relationship… if that’s what it was. Kairi had faked losing a key and when efforts to find it were exhausted and it was replaced. She made a small slit in a corner of the padding of his wall to hide it so that he would roam freely at night between bed checks. There was far less staff on the night shift, she explained, so it would be easier to roam freely without being caught.

He had been all over the building more or less, making preparations for another plan he had and silently peeking into his old room where Vanitas lived with Roxanne… that whore. He had peeked in on Torch to find that he was shackled to his bed. Unaware of what had happened to warrant that, he carried on. Peeking in on Sora, he found that he was being afforded many freedoms and seemed to be preparing to leave. Maybe he was up for release? He didn’t know but all the posters that he had on his wall before, were taken down and there was paperwork lying on his dresser.  
He had looked in on others to find that nothing much had changed, there was a new guy who had a bunch of girly things in his room so he assumed he was the new Roxanne. The shuffler’s room was dark but he could see the glow of a small night light and from what he could tell, he slept with his beanie on. Going to the art room on his next outing had been a spur of the moment decision. He missed Vanitas and knew that he would be able to feel him there where he painted canvases with his soul.

Rounding the long table, he stopped short when he saw the shadow of a lump that hadn’t been there on his last lap. He stopped whistling. Counting silently back, he knew he hadn’t missed any meds, so he squinted at it hoping to make sense of the form.. and then it moved and two yellow eyes opened wide. “Vanitas…” he stepped closer and the form morphed into a standing shadow of his lover. He stared unwilling to believe what he was seeing.

“Riku.” Vanitas whispered but made no move to reach out, fearing he may lose another digit before Riku got straight in his head.

“How…” Riku reached for him with a shaking hand. “Vani… I watched you sleeping…”

That was it for Vanitas and he stepped forward into Riku’s arms, melting against him and breathing deeply the scent of his savior. There was nothing in the world but Riku Valentine and he didn’t even remember when it started, and didn’t care. Strong arms wrapped around him and held him close while familiar lips kissed his face and murmured things that he would replay over and over in his head when he couldn’t sleep. 

Realization complete, Vanitas mumbled against the crisp cloth of his shirt. “How did you get out of solitary? How is that even possible?”

“I’m a vampire remember? I just slipped through the keyhole.” Riku smiled and kissed him, unwilling to waste another second without showing him deeper affection. 

“How long.. what time is it even?” he asked as he squinted at the wall clock. 

“Two fifteen… fort-five minutes til bed check, thirty minutes before I have to go to get back inside safely.” Riku lifted him off the floor and carried him like a rag doll to the back of the room.

 

A week later while he was going through his daily routine of sit-ups and push-ups, Riku was interrupted by a knock and demand for his hands. Wiping his sweat off with his shirt he wrinkled his nose and gave his hands, sans shirt.

No shackles were added to his feet but the door opened anyway. He was escorted by Pence who was tight-lipped about his destination but soon realized that he was headed for the infirmary. “What’s up?”

“Just a blood sample.”

“Fuck’s sake… did they find another one?” he murmured and heard a gentle amused snort from his guard. “No… I actually think this is more of a routine deal to make sure you’re healthy before they release you back into gen pop.”

“Cool. I’m ready to go and catch up with everyone.”

“I bet.” Pence nodded as they entered the rooms that were expressly for lab work. “Been a long six months I’m sure.”

“Six months.” Riku mused.

Pence nodded. “Seventy showers.”

Riku smirked. “Three haircuts.”

Pence smiled. “Two unreported walkabouts between bed checks.”

Riku stared at him and then mumbled. “One best guard ever.”

“Don’t forget your best nurse ever.” Pence chuckled and patted Riku’s back.

“Where is she assigned now?”

“Main… so she may be here now.” Pence waggled his brows and peered through the glass doors. Riku looked around briefly but really didn’t care of he ever saw the redhead again or not. She had fulfilled a need he had at the time but he was about to be returned to Vanitas… as soon as he displaced Roxanne so he could move back into his room. Displacing her would have to be non-violent or he would be right back in sc, but if violence was the only way, he was prepared for that too.

A nurse entered and prepared to take his blood but as she filled out the paperwork, her eyes kept returning this face. He knew the signs and he saw the fear as she put the name with the face and the news reports that probably played through her head like some art school film project. Watching her hands begin to tremble, he took a deep breath and averted his eyes… until she dropped her pen. The sudden clatter startled him and he jerked toward the sound. She shrieked and ran out of the room.

Pence looked at Riku who shrugged and picked up the pen, and then passed it to his guard. “That escalated quickly.”

Pence roared with laughter and stepped to the door to yell. “Can we get a nurse who is familiar with Mr. V please?”

Kairi strolled in and grinned. “I’m about as familiar as they come I guess, wouldn’t you say so… Mr. V?”

He grinned, flashing his famous teeth and nodded. “You taking my blood this time… I believe this should be a trade.”

“I believe this IS a trade.” She grinned right back and he chuckled, offering his arm.

Once it was done, she sealed the sample and informed him that the results would be ready the following day and he would be informed if there was any problems or if another sample was needed. Pence walked him back to the elevator and they stepped on.

“So… Why didn’t you rat me out for sneaking out?”

“No harm no foul, in my opinion… plus if something had gone down, it didn’t happen on my shift so… not my problem Mr. V.” Pence nodded.

Riku scowled and nodded as well, wondering if someone with so little conscience should be in charge of people like him. “So what you’re saying is… if someone had keys to other places that were out of your jurisdiction and place of primary responsibility, then you wouldn’t bother trying to stop that person from doing what they wanted?”

“Correct.” Pence smiled. “But it would be helpful to me if someone didn’t tell me what they were planning… so that if I were questioned on the hypothetical matter that we’re technically not discussing right now, I wouldn’t have to feign ignorance.”

Riku nodded and stepped off the elevator back into his basement home. Later that night he would slip out to meet Kairi on the smoking patio by D wing where he fucked her and instructed her on her mission. The next day, she delivered clean scrubs to him with a few loose key cards and one metal key. Pence had to run an errand abruptly so he showed her the inside of his padded cell. 

Riku ate his lunch in silence and when the knock came and started for the door even though there was no call for his hands. Turning his back tp the door, he heard it click and Pence entered. “No hands today. Here’s a bag for your personal effects. You’re going to D wing.”

Riku nodded and then stood still, staring at his guard.

“What? Ya want a hug or somethin?”  
He shook his head and looked at the bag.

“Ohhh I got you. Um, just hurry it up. Don’t want them to change their minds.” Pence stepped outside the door and flipped through the paperwork while Riku retrieved his pilfered keys and tucked them inside his extra clothes.

Escorting him back to his old home, and to a very familiar cell with curtains to cover a transparent wall, he nodded and fist bumped his guard and then settled in. At dinner, he was jarred from his cooking show marathon by a knock on his door. “Riku!”

He smiled as he opened to see Sora. “Hey buddy.”

“Let’s go to dinner. I heard you were back and this is my last week here… so I wanted to make sure and catch up with you and stuff.”

He followed the feisty brunette down to the cafeteria and scanned the crowd. Everyone was happy and chattering as they entered and w few even called his name… but not really loudly… because well, Riku. He sat with Sora and listened to his plans for what he wanted to do when he got out. His chatter became a drone but Riku perked up when he mentioned a talking dog and a duck who was an asshole that secretly wanted him dead.

As if he had just heard himself at that moment, Sora clammed up and looked away. Riku scowled but then offered a solution. “Kill the duck. Don’t wait around for him to stab you in the back. If he won’t heal you then… fuck him. Or let him fight the heartless on his own… he won’t last a day.”

Sora nodded. “Good idea… kill the duck.”


End file.
